


Cycle of Hatred

by mem0



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, AU starting from Uchiha Massacre, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Soldiers, Different Fourth War, F/M, Gen, Genin Teams, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi-centric, POV Haruno Sakura, Shinobi War, Worldbuilding, alternative universe, not a BAMF-Sakura beats everyone fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:41:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28407891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mem0/pseuds/mem0
Summary: The world of shinobi is cruel, and Uzumaki Naruto was born too late to change it: or, the Uchiha Affair goes differently. This is an exploration of a Konoha at war, and the story of a different Team Seven. AU. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi. Even a generation of failures has its dreams.
Comments: 19
Kudos: 38





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Cycle of Hatred](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15663684) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> This is a reupload + continuation of the work linked below, as I've started updating it again on ff. Sorry to everyone that followed the old version, I hope some people are still interested in picking it up again! I will definitely not orphan it again, even if I get slow about updates at some point. But for now updates should come fairly normally again.
> 
> This is a massive AU, starting from the Uchiha coup-d'état attempt. Came from wondering what the Naruto generation would do if they lived under the circumstances of basically every other generation before them (aka: if there was an actual Fourth Shinobi War). Will be told primarily from Sakura's perspective, though it's possible that there'll be some interludes from some other characters. All of the Rookie 12 will play a role of some kind in this story, as will many other familiar faces from canon – war doesn't mean that Akatsuki will just stand by on the sidelines. Kaguya does not exist. There will be some relationships, but they are not the focus of the story.

Iwa declared war one-hundred and ninety-four hours after she turned thirteen, but Haruno Sakura considered it a birthday present anyway. They had spent the last five years on the brink of it, and now that it was here the announcement brought a kind of rejuvenation with it. She stood at attention on the dusty parade grounds with the rest of the Genin Corps, squinting into the harsh bands of the afternoon sun that outlined the Hokage in gold where he stood on a platform in front of his rocky image in the mountain.

“The blood of our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,” he said. “The Will of Fire that guides us onward,” he said. Behind her, someone was talking in ranks: Happy Hour at Kano’s. There was a hiss – shut the fuck up, show some respect. To Sakura, their voices were muffled and far away, barely audible over the throbbing of her heartbeat, pounding loud in her head. The sun beat down, the Hokage spoke, and Sakura’s leg itched. Stiff at attention, she did not move.

“The government of Suna has pledged itself to support our cause. Their soldiers are already mobilizing to the border, where the brave heroes of the last war fought side by side to victory.” The Hokage paused after the word victory, as though savoring it. Despite herself, Sakura found her eyes drawn to the stark shadow of the mountain, looming behind the Third Hokage. The bravest hero of the last war looked down at her, impassive as always, staring down from unreachable heights. The Fourth Hokage was looking East, towards the rising sun. Behind him, to the West, Iwa was lurking. This time they would fight without him.

“Shinobi!” The Third was finished. “To victory!”

As one, they roared out their bloodlust in response. Sakura added her voice to the crowd.

“Ko-no-ha!” Three syllables, repeated until they were nothing but meaningless sounds. Fists clenched, back straight, eyes ahead.

“Ko-no-ha!” A nail broke skin, and she winced, lost her perfect posture. She quickly righted herself, but it did not matter. No one would notice in such a crowd.

“Ko-no-ha!”

The last shout was still echoing in her head long after they were dismissed by the Corps commander. She had been under his command since Academy graduation: state of threat meant that there was no point wasting a jounin on any no-name graduate. A year of training was what separated those that would be something from those that would languish there forever, doing supply runs, working in logistics, analytics, keeping the peace with civvies.

Sakura knew she was destined for something better. She would show Ami, Hitoka and their gang of jerks. She would show Ino – stupid pig. Most importantly, she would show Sasuke-kun. She had studied hard for him and she knew that the Capability Test in a week would prove it. She and Sasuke-kun would be assigned to the same team, under a real jounin, and, well, everyone knew genin teams got…close.

Sakura cast one last, lingering look at the Fourth before joining the stream of shinobi headed to the city center.

Beer and laughter mingled in the dusty air, and she found herself channeling chakra to her feet to glide over the colorful streamers and trash already littering the streets. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see the blurs of shinobi with air access nimbly hopping from roof to roof as they dispersed. Here, in the heart of Konoha, with the shouts of the assembled Genin Corps and 3rd Army still echoing in the thrumming in her pulse, Sakura knew that the war was going to be glorious. So did the grocer on the corner of 15th Ninjutsu Division, and she gladly helped herself to a bright green cup of melon soda from one of the barrels by the entrance. As she poured, someone tucked a flower behind her ear with a giggle. She turned too late to catch who it was in the press of people. It was as a pink as her hair, and Sakura laughed too.

She had dropped her empty cup to be trampled underfoot and was flowing with the crowd towards Mokuton Square when her father caught her, literally, from behind. He spun her around to face him before swinging her into the air.

“C’mon, Sakura,” Haruno Kizashi smiled, planting a kiss on her cheek. His mustache bristled against Sakura’s skin. “You’re not thinking about abandoning your dad to go off with your friends, are you? The Hokage said we should give our troops a good send off, didn’t he?”

“Dad!” She wiggled out of his arms to throw her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to reach. “Of course not! I was gonna go home right after I saw Mokuton. I know mom’s got something planned!”

“No spoilers! Let her surprise me!” She leaned back to catch his conspiratorial wink.

He kissed her again, then straightened, and she slid off of him. His uniform was freshly pressed under the heavy chuunin vest, and Sakura thought he had never looked so good.

And just to think, after her test, she could be next to go off and join him. To war. War! What a word. Sakura liked it better than peacekeeping operations. It was like a dam of tension had been broken. Or of lies. They had been waiting for it for the last five years, since the skirmishes started on the border. Or maybe they had been waiting for it since the Fourth Hokage died.

“You wanted to stop by Mokuton real quick? I’m sure mom won’t mind too much,” Kizashi said.

“Just for a few minutes!” Sakura said. She had promised that she would go straight home, so they could celebrate together, but… She could not help her somewhat guilty smile. “I heard Itachi-sama’s going to be there.”

Her father laughed. A boy hit Sakura’s elbow as he raced by, calling for someone to wait. The contact snapped her chakra control, and the thin barrier separating her from the dirt road disappeared, sending her teetering for a moment. Kizashi laughed again, throatily, and then kicked up a cloud of dust all over her standard issue sandals. She shrieked in indignation, but he was no longer listening.

“C’mon, kiddo,” he said, and she grabbed his hand to follow him through the crowd.

But by the time they made it to the wide expanse of Mokuton Square, Uchiha Itachi was already gone. The choir was still there, and a kunoichi was fire-dancing, surrounded by a ring of entranced spectators, but the disappointment of so nearly missing her idol left Sakura uninterested. She did not even bother trying to push her way closer when she spotted Jiraiya of the Sannin giving autographs and taking pictures as he mingled with the crowd.

Her father did not seem interested either, munching on a pastry he had gotten somewhere while she was searching the square. “Ready to go?” He asked, dropping two wrappers to the ground.

“Daddy!” Sakura squealed. “What are you doing? Mom’s gonna be so pissed you’ve already eaten!”

“I promise I’ll still be hungry,” He tousled her hair and they set off again.

“I promise she’ll still be pissed,” Sakura warned, but wiggled her arm around the crook of his elbow to follow.

“Only if you tell her!” Kizashi’s nudge to her side sent her rearranging the chakra flow to her legs yet again to keep from slipping.

They pushed against the crowd for a few blocks, before turning off of the large road for a smaller side alley. The crowd was thinning out gradually, before they turned to take a left and it disappeared abruptly.

Her father glanced down the nearly-abandoned road.

“Let’s take another route,” he said, and turned back to the path they had come from.

Sakura swallowed. “Yeah.”

Uzumaki Naruto scared her too.

In the end, it only took an extra fifteen minutes to take home, and it was not as though they had put in an effort or hurried. Her mother did not seem to notice, or mind, when she greeted them at the door, but after a brief kiss for Kizashi, she started frowning, licking at her lips. Kizashi was already laughing as he wiped at the sugary powder stuck in his pink stubble.

“I spent all day making your favorites,” Mebuki said, speaking slowly. “Kizashi!”

Sakura took off her dirty shoes and slipped into the house before they started fighting, headed straight for the kitchen. It smelled like fresh bread, and she helped herself to a warm bun from a basket on the table. She paid no mind as her mother raced into the room, grabbing at a dish rag before disappearing to chase after her father with the makeshift whip. It was going to be quieter, without him.

For the first time, Sakura felt apprehensive.

Her mother was still a genin, only nominally in the Konoha Mother’s Force. If she passed her test, if the jounin-sensei wanted her –– when she passed her test, when she proved herself to all of them! –– it would mean Sakura would be more likely to be the one sent off to the front than her own mother. Mebuki had never even left the village. But her father was in the Ranged Division of the 3rd Army. He could spend the entire war on the front. He had been on long-term missions for months before. But Sakura might not see him again for years!

She put down the bun, no longer hungry. Then she picked it back up: when she was accepted onto a Genin Squad, they would be sent to fight outside of the village too. She should probably study some more.

As if sensing her minute of worry, her father reappeared, booming with laughter. He backed into the kitchen, still wearing one sandal, and waving the other in front of him like a talisman to ward off the increasingly irate Mebuki following him.

“You could at least pretend to take this –– !” Mebuki stopped. She caught Sakura’s eye. Then she laughed too, quieter, but good-naturedly. “Well, Hokage-sama ordered a good send off, so I suppose we better get down to it! If I think you’ve spoiled your appetite, though, you better believe I'm going to make you run laps around the block!”

Sakura rolled her eyes as her father flung away one sandal and kicked off the other, before flinging himself down on the nearest chair. “You’re in my seat,” she protested.

“That’s my girls,” Kizashi said fondly. Then: “So what’ve you got?”

Picking carefully at her mother’s best (yeah, today was not a good day for the diet), as her parents joked, then squabbled, then started laughing again, Sakura thought about war. Defending the border, or deep undercover in enemy territory, deadly and beautiful, a princess and a warrior. And of course –

Kizashi gave her a nudge: “Whatcha thinking about, kiddo? You’re too quiet!”

Sakura blushed. “Just Sasuke-kun,” she said truthfully.

Her parents exchanged a look and laughed together.

Sakura quickly changed the subject. Her mother went to get drinks (she even let Sakura take a sip, which Sakura gamely pretended tasted good). They did not send her to bed until it was almost two in the morning, and even then, lying upstairs, she could hear their quiet talk, sometimes punctuated by a bark of low laughter or the clinking of glasses. She let her father’s voice lull her to sleep. She would miss him, yes, but she would join him soon, once she passed the test. Besides, they were shinobi.

It was that thought that kept her from crying the next morning when they saw him off. She knew Rule #25, and she was no kid. Her mother did not either, but made him promise to write every day, and got angry and smacked him when he pointed out that the post would not come every day. Or maybe it was because he was using his own spoon to scrape the serving bowl of oatmeal clean.

Sakura was cleared for Genin Corps duty in preparation for her exam, and Mebuki left to do cleaning rounds with the neighborhood patrol the moment Kizashi was out of the door, so Sakura was all alone at an ungodly hour in the morning with nothing to do.

She let herself ease into consciousness with Suzume-sensei’s ab routine, before setting off for the recommended ten mile jog. She went to the academy training grounds for her run, because the city was busy with outgoing soldiers and cleaning brigades, and it was still too early for classes, so they were almost completely abandoned. When she was finished she went back home and pulled out the war science books that she had not looked at since graduation. It was time to study. The last year might have been good for her physicals, but there were more important things.

The week passed in a blur of frantic, frenetic memorization. And math. Sakura was ready.

On Sunday, she went to the Hokage’s tower. She was asked for identification (“012601!”) twice before she could get inside. In the first-floor mission room she queried her assignment off of the unfriendly-looking chuunin at the desk.

“Registration?” He asked.

She gave him her ID and he passed her a scroll: 0600, Training Ground Seven.

When she took it from him, she knew she was holding her destiny.

When she arrived the next morning and saw Sasuke already waiting, it was like seeing all her dreams come true.

When Naruto arrived, she started second-guessing.

Four hours of waiting for their jounin-sensei later, Sakura was worried. She did not really want to think it, and she pressed herself harder against the tree she was sitting under so Sasuke could not see her fall to superstitions like knocking on wood, but she hoped their teacher was alive. Could they have assigned someone who was already…? Was the war going bad?

…It was probably just a typo on the timing.

Sasuke had not said anything since she had given up her attempts to talk with him, hours ago. He was resting quietly under an adjacent poplar with his eyes closed, though, so at least she could look without having to worry that she would be caught. Naruto had given up his attempts to talk to her too, hours ago, and after running around the clearing doing something or another, had disappeared into the forest behind them some time ago. She thought it was stupid that he would waste his energy, but she did not want to have to talk to him, so she kept the opinion to herself. She was sure Sasuke agreed. If he was awake. She could not tell from so far away. She leaned closer, trying for surreptitious. When he made no movements, she gave up on subtlety, and turned her head to the side to stare directly. The light breeze rustled his bangs and she wondered what his hair felt like. He really was so cute.

Sakura knocked on wood again.

“How unprofessional,” a deep voice drawled from right next to her.

The jounin was crouched in a squat right next to where she had been sitting. Sakura screamed. Then jumped to attention, scrambling to her feet. How had he gotten so close?

He was gone, and she spun around, just in time to catch Sasuke jerk to attention as well.

“Did you – ” she started, but the jounin was already back. He stood, slouching casually in front of them, both hands shoved deep into the pockets of his standard cargo pants.

“The third one is on his way,” he said, and, sure enough, Sakura heard a loud ruckus in the underbrush that could only be Naruto’s approach.

She did not turn to look, keeping her eyes on the man in front of her. One dark eye stared back from the small strip of skin visible in the gap between his mask and slanted hitae-ate. Silver hair spiked out from his face at impossible angles. Sakura swallowed. Her eyes jerked to his neck, but under the dark fabric she could not see it moving as he breathed. Slowly, she raised her eyes back to his face.

“Well, kiddies, I guess I’m going to be your examiner today,” the man said.

Hatake Kakashi did not need to introduce himself.


	2. Chapter 2

A loud crunch announced Naruto’s arrival on Sakura’s right. She instinctively twitched away, catching herself before she made contact with Sasuke’s side. She breathed. There was a reason they had always been paired together for fights in the Academy. With Sasuke she was safe.

“So.” Kakashi dragged out the word, saying it so casually that Sakura was not sure whether or not she should still be standing at attention.

But then his single eye, drooping in manifest disinterest, met hers, and she felt her spine jerk straighter reflexively. She wished she had spent longer brushing her hair. Was that a strand outside of her ponytail? She realized she had stopped breathing, and starting counting exhalations. He turned his gaze to Naruto.

“You shouldn’t make your commander wait,” he said. The hypocrisy made her want to scream. Instead she exhaled.

“But I suppose I’m not your commander yet, now, am I?” And his eye crinkled into a terrifying parody of a smile, like a child’s twisted attempt at drawing emotions on a blank canvas. She was certain, somehow, that beneath the mask his lips were unmoved. He made a sound between a snort and a chuckle. They were silent.

He exaggeratedly raised an eyebrow and made the noise of a pout. This time, the emotion almost seemed genuine. “How boring.”

Sakura swallowed. The sound seemed to echo in her ears.

“Are you really going to keep making me wait?” He dragged out the question as though he were teasing. “Likes. Dislikes. Hobbies. Dreams.”

There was a second of silence.

His eye was still on Naruto. She risked a glance, and saw that the boy was grinning.

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, believe it! I like cup ramen! What I like even better is when I can get restaurant ramen! I dislike the three minutes you have to wait for ramen to cook! My hobby is eating RAMEN!” She could not help but stare. “My dream… I’m going to surpass all the Hokage, all on my own – and then everyone will have to acknowledge me!”

Sakura swallowed. The Fourth Hokage had probably been the most successful killer in history. She wondered how high the Third’s body count was.

Kakashi’s lazy eye turned to her, a silent prompt.

“I’m Haruno Sakura. I like…” It was just the way he had phrased it, and the fact that Sasuke was standing, well, right next to her – she could feel his body-heat against her leg! – Sakura could not help it, she blushed. Then humiliation made her blush more, and she tried to catch herself: “I dislike, uh,” she glanced around for inspiration, but Naruto was not an option. “I dislike jerks and bullies. My hobby is…” what would Sasuke say? She looked at him again, but it only made her blush more. At least there was one answer she knew she had right: “My dream is… to defeat Iwa, for good!”

She met Kakashi’s eye again, but could not read anything in his flat gaze.

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are a lot of things I dislike and not many I like. I won’t use the word dream, but I have an ambition. I am going to restore my clan, and – ” He cut off suddenly, swinging around to glare in Sakura’s direction. It was probably intended at Naruto. Sasuke was so brave…

“And?” Kakashi prompted.

Sasuke whipped his head back around to glare at Kakashi, causing his dark bangs to flutter over the rim of his hitae-ate, perched snuggly on his forehead. She imagined running her fingers through it.

“Restore my clan.” Sasuke was so cool… The insinuation made her blush again. Uchiha Sakura…

Kakashi did not look impressed. There was another awkward silence.

“Um, the test?” Sakura asked. She was wearing her lucky hair-tie: red, with a bow on the top; the same tie she had worn when she graduated from the Academy. That time, the only question she had gotten wrong was an analysis of the Second Hokage’s tactics at the battle for Kanabata Pass, and they had still given her partial credit. This time, she had specifically given the First Shinobi War an extra review, just in case.

“Right,” Kakashi turned and began to walk towards a series of stumps near the center of the clearing. Sakura tried to catch Sasuke’s eye to see if they should follow, but he was not looking her way. She hesitated, but Naruto scampered after the jounin, and then Sasuke was walking away too. Sakura hurriedly rushed after them. She made sure not to go too fast, preferring to stay slightly behind Sasuke. Being too close to Naruto made her nervous. Kakashi did not turn.

He stopped when he reached the training logs and turned around. There was a timer on the log next to him. Were they starting with a physical? She thought that was behind them – there had already been a test to qualify for a Capability Test in the first place.

“Here are two bells,” Kakashi said, dangling a jingling chain from his fingers. “Your task is to take them from me. If you don’t get a bell by noon, you don’t eat. I’ll even tie you to the post and eat your lunch in front of you.”

He said it with the same wink of the eye that might have been an attempt at a smile. Who would have even brought lunch for a meeting at six in the morning?

“You need to get one bell,” He continued. “There are only two, so at least one of you will end up tied to the stump. After lunch we’ll do another round. You have one hour.”

Sakura took a second to ponder the impossibility of their task. She was really regretting having spent so much of the last week with her textbooks. Kakashi tauntingly shook the bells as he raised the chain to his eye-level. “Hm, I almost forgot. Anyone without a bell at the end fails, so at least one of you is going back to the Genin Corps. Well, come at me with all you have.

“Start!”

Sakura was scrambling back towards tree cover before she had finished processing his words. Anyone without a bell at the end fails… did that mean?

Sakura had prepared. Well, maybe not for this. But still. Okay. She peaked out from behind the tall tree she had found shelter behind.

None of them were going to get a bell if the legendary copy ninja did not want them to. But it would not be fair if he actually fought them seriously. He had to give them a chance, at least. He probably just wanted them to show their skills, Sakura decided, and then he would give the two best bells. No sensei would give an impossible test.

Sasuke had also run for cover, but Naruto had not moved. It looked like he and Kakashi were talking, but they were too far away to hear. At least until Naruto shouted: “Head on is how I always fight, believe it!” and launched himself fearlessly forward. Then Kakashi was gone, and Naruto was flying.

The tree in front of her snapped with the impact and suddenly Sakura was scrambling backwards, trying to avoid the tangle of falling branches. She slipped on a root and then pushed herself backwards, scraping along on her butt to avoid the collapsing crown of the tree as it smashed into the ground, blotting out the sun and casting her into a sudden shade. From a few meters above her, tangled in the leaves, Naruto groaned.

Sakura stumbled too her feet and slammed into the branches around her, pushing herself out of the collapsed tree without the slightest attempt at stealth. He could find her anyway if he wanted to – the destruction of the very tree she had been hiding behind was proof enough of that. She had to get away before he followed; she needed to think. He had not even given Naruto a chance to show his skills – how could she pass if he was starting at such a high level? It was not fair!

Her momentum was stopped dead in its tracks by another moan. From under a fallen log, legs peeking out from the other side, bent at uneven angles, Sasuke groaned.

“S-Sakura,” his eyes rolled up to meet hers. He coughed weakly. Blood flecked the air.

When the falling branch had pinned him, a sharp stake of wood had gone deep into his shoulder. She watched the blood slowly foam up from the wound, soaking into Sasuke’s dark shirt. Sakura could feel her heart pounding in her ears. Sasuke was… Sasuke needed… She had to…

The mass of leaves and twigs that had been the tree’s crown shook. Somewhere in the tangle above her, Naruto was moving.

Sasuke was the cutest boy in her Academy class. She had ended her friendship with Ino over Sasuke. She was about to be alone with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Sakura made a choice.

She clenched her shaking fists and sunk down to her knees besides him.

“Sasuke-kun, can you hear me?” Textbook question. Suzume-sensei said: check if the person is responsive.

Pale eyelids fluttered and a sound that could have been an acknowledgement left his mouth.

“I’m going to try to staunch the bleeding,” Sakura said.

She pressed her hands to the area between his shoulder and collarbone, choking down the bile that rose in her throat at the warmth of his blood. Suzume-sensei said: apply pressure.

She knew not to remove the branch. But what was she supposed to do about the one lying on top of him? From the angle she was sitting, she could see that it had hit him flat across the waist, trapping him at an uncomfortable angle. Were his legs broken? She could not tell. What was Kakashi doing? Why was the blood still coming?

She could feel herself veering into panic. She breathed. Suzume-sensei said: if a training situation goes bad, appeal to the highest ranking shinobi in the area without delay.

“Sensei!” She screamed. He could not have meant to do this. He would come back and bring Sasuke to the hospital and it would all be okay and Sasuke would be grateful and Naruto would not come down from the tree and Kakashi was on his way and he would know what to do because he was a jounin and he was fast because he was a jounin so he was probably here already and where was he and he was coming and until then she just had to apply pressure. “Sensei!”

Apply pressure to stop the bleeding. She pressed her palms more firmly against his shoulder. It collapsed like a hollow doll, snapping away under her fingers with a wet squelch. Dark blood sprayed into the air, onto her face, her uniform, her hair, blinding her. She screamed, snatching back her hands, wiping desperately at her sticky face and –

“S-Sakura…” She could not look, she could not look, she could not look, she could not look. “W-why…? …You…”

The hole that had been Sasuke’s shoulder stared back at her, white bones, red blood, pink muscle. She needed a bandage; she reached out – his chest collapsed under her touch like a rotten fruit. Her hand made contact with something slippery, pulsing, warm, and then suddenly she was being dragged forward. His intestines reached out to strangle her as she screamed.

Yes, yes, this, you deserve this – look at what you did to him, LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID –

Appeal to the highest ranking shinobi in the area without delay. As black spots began to cloud her vision, Sakura screamed again: “Sensei!”

.  
.  
.

When she woke she understood. The four signs of genjutsu: headache, nausea, tingling in the extremities, heartburn. Mizuki-sensei had forgotten humiliation.

She pulled herself to her feet and surveyed the area. She was standing near the familiar collapsed tree, but there was no one else in sight. Had Sasuke been there at all? Had Naruto?

She cautiously moved forward to look into the clearing. It was empty. She listened for the sound of fighting, but the forest was silent. A glance at the sky told her not too much time had passed.

If the boys were still fighting, they would have to be deeper in the forest, she decided. She still had a chance to show her worth, but she would have to hurry. There was no way she would be able to pass with Sasuke like this.

She took to the tries, leaping from branch to branch as silently as possible, on alert for the sounds of a confrontation. There was an opening in the trees, and she caught sight of a flash of white. He was waiting for her.

She took her place in the nook of a tree on the outskirts of the small glade. He did not even look up from the book he held loosely in front of his face with one hand, casually slumping in the center of the clearing. Maybe he had not noticed her after all?

“So eager for another lesson?” He did not look up but she could feel his eye boring into her anyway, judging her, finding her lacking. “Shinobi lesson number two: genjutsu.”

She was already flaring her chakra at irregular intervals. She would not fall for that again – no way! Mizuki-sensei had said with chakra control like hers she could escape anything but a sharingan genjutsu.

She emptied a sling of shuriken in his direction; cover for her approach. She threw herself out of the tree, but not quite into the glade, finding a bush on his left, but closer. He did not even look up to dodge, spinning out of the way of the first three, and sidestepping the two she had aimed at possible escape angles.

“I guess you want a different lesson. Well, I’m waiting…”

A head-on assault would not give her the chance to show anything; he would take her out too fast. He turned to face the bush she was cowering against, lowering his book from his face to make eye contact, before decisively turning away. Okay, stealth would not work either.

Mizuki-sensei had said there was an advantage in heights when facing a superior enemy. She needed an opportunity. She threw another sling of shuriken, leaping back to the tree.

He ducked under the first two, and sidestepped to the left to avoid the rest and his left leg was still in the air, he was out of balance – there! Substitution Jutsu. Sakura was a foot from his face, emptying her last sling of shuriken with her right hand while scrambling for a kunai with her left. He danced backwards and she let the momentum of the substitution carry her, kunai switching hands, outstretched to strike.

Then there was the whistling of metal through the air, and instinct pushed her to the ground, rolling backwards. There was the thump of flesh on flesh, and when she opened her eyes, she was staring into the red-white of the Uchiha fan. Again, she flared her chakra, once, twice, but the image did not disappear. Sasuke’s back was to her, legs spread in a fighting stance. Kakashi’s book had disappeared, but he had not straightened out of his slouch.

“I’m not like the others!” Sasuke hissed and threw himself forward.

Sakura scrambled to her feet just as Sasuke’s kick slammed into Kakashi’s armguard. The jounin worked his momentum, using it to fling Sasuke over his shoulder, moving faster than a blur. Sasuke had already recovered, rolling with the throw to land on his feet and swing into a back kick. Kakashi caught his leg in the air, and then Sasuke was ducking down, swinging forward, chakra flaring.

This…this is…

And then there was fire.

The cloud of flames engulfed the clearing, and though it was aimed in the other direction, she found herself stumbling back to avoid the heat. She raised her arms to protect her face, and by the time she had lowered them and blinked away the afterimage, the small glade was empty.

Sakura could not think. Sasuke was so far ahead of her; he really was amazing.

She could hear the sounds of the fight moving back towards the main clearing. She swallowed. That fight was so far above her level… The noises got fainter. Sakura swallowed again, then followed.

But she was too slow. The sounds of fighting abruptly stopped, followed by the loud ring of the timer going off, and Sakura still had not made it back to the collapsed tree. She was too slow.

.  
.  
.

By the time Sakura made it back to the three stumps in the main clearing, the others were already there.

“And Sakura graces us with her presence at last,” Kakashi drawled, arms crossed against his chest, perfectly at ease.

“Well, that was a complete disappointment. In fact, if we weren’t at war, I’d tell you all to quit as shinobi.”

Sakura cringed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke twitch as well.

“Why do you think you were divided into teams in the first place? None of you even tried to understand the meaning behind this test. Do you really think I expect you to be skilled enough to beat me? Well, if we’re going to talk about your skills, that was even more pathetic. There’s probably not even a point in giving you the second round. You punks just don’t have what it takes.

“I mean, did you even think about this in advance? I should be eating your lunch right now, and yet I only even found one bento.”

Kakashi’s tone turned from serious to eerily cheerful without pause: “So unprepared, and yet you think you’re worth wasting my time. Well, even if none of you but Sasuke thought to bring lunch, it would be unfair for me to suffer.”

Kakashi giggled to himself, and plucked a sushi roll out of Sasuke’s bento. It disappeared behind his mask in an invisible motion so fast Sakura did not see his face. He made exaggerated chewing noises. “This is good, by the way, Sasuke. Did your brother make it for you?”

Sasuke growled, but Sakura blushed. Itachi, turning around in the kitchen, offering her homemade breakfast, dark eyes soft and tender…

Another sushi roll disappeared. “I suppose in the name of fairness, I’ll have to go buy lunches for Sakura and Naruto. Then I’ll tie up all three of you failures, and you can watch me eat!”

“What are you talking about, old man? How is that supposed to be fair!” Naruto was burning with indignation.

Kakashi turned his eye to Naruto, suddenly dead serious.

“You’re right, I suppose,” Kakashi said. “You won’t be tied up, Naruto.”

With the hand that was not holding the bento, he reached into his pocket and held out a bell. “This is for you. Congratulations, you’re too important to be wasted in the Genin Corps. You’ll be under my command in the future, so that your power can be used to the maximum benefit of Konoha.

“Sasuke, Sakura, take this time to think about your failures. Maybe next time you won’t embarrass yourselves so much.”

And then he was gone.

The single bell hit the ground where he had been standing with a soft chime, but Naruto did not reach out to grab it. She risked a glance. He was staring at it as though stupefied, mouth working around unuttered words. His fists clenched and unclenched reflexively.

Naruto got a bell because he was a monster. That had been planned the whole time. Sasuke was better than her, she knew that. He would get the bell and advance, and they would be separated. She would spend the rest of her life in the Genin Corps and Ino would win Sasuke’s heart. That was unacceptable.

Sakura thought: think about your failures. Her cheeks burned. Without even looking she could imagine the cold expression on Sasuke’s face.

Sakura thought: think about your failures. And: none of you even tried to understand the meaning behind the test. Then: anyone without a bell at the end fails.

Naruto had still not made a move to pick up the bell.

“Sasuke-kun,” she said. “He said there’s a deeper meaning to the test. Anyone without a bell at the end fails.”

He said none of us were skilled enough to beat him, she thought. Her mind was racing. But we were divided into teams. He said there was a reason.

This was the kind of test Sakura was good at. She could figure out what he wanted from them.

Naruto was still twitching. The bell was on the ground. Kakashi was gone. Anyone without a bell at the end fails. Sakura understood.

It was bait.

“It’s all a trick!” She said, in a rush. “It’s a trick! We’re set up against each other!”

There was no way Sasuke would want to be on a team with Naruto either: the boy was the dead last of the class and completely useless when he was not a raging monster. Sasuke might be able to control him, but who would want to constantly have your life in danger like that?

If they could just take it from him, then they could work together for the second bell!

Kakashi had left them for a reason – he probably did not want Naruto either. Who would?

“We’re supposed to…we’re supposed to…” She looked pleadingly at Sasuke, hoping he would understand without her having to say it.

He met her gaze, finally, frowning deeply. But he did not make a sound, or a movement. Sakura felt desperation sink in. Who knew how long they had before Kakashi would come back? Had he left at all? Maybe he was just watching to see who would win the bell. He had dropped it instead of handing it off for a reason.

“He wanted us to…fight,” She whispered, finally, not daring to take her eyes off of Sasuke, silently begging him to understand. The plan would be obvious once he understood – he would take Naruto, she would grab the bell. It was only logical: Sasuke had always fought Naruto. But Sasuke needed to attack first; Naruto was closer to it than she was.

Sasuke said nothing for a long moment, then swung his head away, glaring blankly at Naruto.

“You’re right, Sakura,” Sasuke said, not taking his eyes off the target. He let out an angry noise of frustration. “Of course, of course it is. I get the point of the test now, that’s so stupid. The two of them, they’re always going on about it, of course, I should have known it’d be something so dumb!”

Then: “Get over here, loser,” he said. Head-on?! Sakura worried for a second, then scolded herself. Sasuke knew his strength, and he was better than Naruto. Naruto started in surprise, tearing his gaze away from the bell he had been staring at.

“Hey, asshole, what’s that supposed to mean!” Naruto shouted, but he took a half-step in their direction. Just one more step away…

“Sakura’s right,” Sasuke said. She felt the warmth rushing to her cheeks and looked away shyly. Sasuke continued: “We were put into teams for a reason, and he tried to make us fight against each other. She’s right, of course it’s a trick. We’re supposed to work together. We’re a team. So pick up your stupid bell, and let’s make a plan for the next round.”

“What?” Sakura was as dumbfounded as Naruto, but only he found the words to express it.

“Teamwork!” He exclaimed with a huff. “The whole test is about teamwork, were you even listening to Sakura? Of course it is, it might as well be a slogan. So pick up your bell and let’s figure out how we’re gonna – ”

“I don’t want it!” Naruto shouted, turning to grab the bell and then flinging it away. Sakura followed it desperately with her eyes, what was he thinking? “I don’t want it! I don’t get what you’re talking about at all, but I’m not taking that thing, no matter what, believe it! I don’t need him to give me anything! We can take them if we do it together, isn’t that what you’re saying?? So we don’t need any handouts! I’ll only take a bell if I earn one!”

“Let’s do it as a team! I don’t need him to give me anything! I don’t want anything from him! We’ll take them! He says he has to take me?! We’ll show him! You two will take the bells, and then we’ll be a full team!” Naruto was on a roll, but Sasuke was nodding.

“Yes,” Sasuke agreed. “As a team. None of us is going anywhere without the others. We’ll get the bells together, and we’ll pass together.”

He growled again. “I can’t believe I fell for that shit.”

“Right, together,” Sakura nodded weakly. She didn’t think…but, it was Sasuke. He had said she was right.

There was a second of silence, as befitted their dramatic declarations. Sakura opened her mouth.

“I admit, I’m surprised.”

They spun around as one. Mostly. Sakura stumbled a bit. Perched in a squat on the central log, Kakashi’s eye was crinkled up into a smile that might have been real.

“Congratulations, you three pass!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I know no one likes reading re-writes of the bell test after a certain point, but it had to happen. I hope no one was expecting Sakura to be particularly badass – she knows more in some areas than canon, but, well, if they were competent, Kakashi would not have to babysit. Please remember that Sakura’s perspective is extremely limited, so there’s a lot of stuff she misses. Don’t forget to leave a review if you liked it ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gets a specialty and Team Seven bonds Team Seven Style (tm) (aka poorly). Next up: Sakura gets a glimpse of a brave new world. Bonus points if you catch hints of some huge canon changes :)

Sakura was going to be an elite of the elite.

Kakashi-sensei had told her that, after he explained teamwork, and the importance of your comrades – the true meaning of the test.

“Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash,” he had said.

Sakura had imagined sinking into the ground and letting it swallow her whole, staring resolutely at the ground, too afraid to look up less he read the secret shame in her eyes and knew what she had wanted to do.

But he told them, he told her, that they were going to be elite. Well, not in so many words, but Sakura could read in between the lines. Reading was something Sakura was good at. Kakashi had told them that they were cleared off of Home Front duty to focus on their training. That was a big investment in their future. In her future.

Intellectually, Sakura had known what it meant to be chosen for a jounin-led genin team: it was not an honor offered to just any genin. They were special, they were chosen – they were the only ones that could someday become all-around chuunin, without being stuck in any specialty area. They could even become full jounin someday, just like Kakashi-sensei.

Yet it had still been unreal, somehow, even after Kakashi-sensei’s announcement they had passed, until she received her new clearance codes the next day from the Hokage’s tower. She was authorized for full use of Training Ground 7. Full use: any day, any time.

Her mother had done some gossiping: this was the first time Kakashi-sensei had ever taken a team. Everyone knew he was ANBU. And he was going to teach her, Haruno Sakura, billboard brow, to be an elite of the elite.

Full use: any day, any time.

Even her father, a loyal ninja for over 30 years, only had training ground access on squad drilling days!

Two months later and she still had a hard time wrapping her mind around it. After training the next day, she had ended up spending the entire night at the training field. Because she could. Also because around 2300 she realized she was not sure if her training ground privileges would translate to an excuse for breaking curfew if she was stopped by Street Patrol (answer: yes, humiliation of asking: subverted, because Naruto was an idiot like always, and actually had to ask what training ground privileges even were).

So Sakura used the training ground, her mother sewed uniforms for the lucky on the frontlines, seven letters came from her father and the newspapers stuck to every other street corner updated her on Iwa’s crimes in Grass.

She was going to be an elite of the elite, and yet somehow she had never felt more useless.

Maybe if Kakashi-sensei had been there more it would have felt different, but even though he had told them to be at the training ground every day at 0500, he himself was only there rarely. He was on active duty, he had explained, and so he would come by when he was in the city. That meant he only came a few times a week, maximum, and never actually at 0500. It was not like Sakura could blame him, of course, but she still felt almost like she was on a vacation while the rest of Konoha was working.

She did Mizuki-sensei’s standard workout, plus Suzume-sensei’s Kunoichi Special once in the morning, just as she had done when she was in the Genin Corps. But in the Genin Corps, they had spent the rest of the day doing missions, or hanging out, if there was nothing to be done. Sakura was training to be an elite, so she did the entire workout again in the evening before going home for dinner (which made her mother laugh and call her an over-achiever). That still left her with nothing to do for the entire afternoon.

She had gone to the workshop her mother was assigned to, once, to help with the sewing, but all the women had shooed her away when they realized she was not Genin Corps anymore.

“You have more important things to do,” her mother had said to explain herself, when Sakura later asked why Mebuki had outed her. “I don’t want you wasting time here with us. You were chosen for a reason, and I want you to be able to take full advantage of that.”

Her friends – or acquaintances, maybe: had anyone but Ino really been her friend? – from the Genin Corps were all working on their own Home Front Duties, and told her much less politely to shove off and let them do their jobs if she tried to talk to them during the day. They also seemed to be under the impression that she had better things to be doing, anyway.

She wished someone had told her what exactly those things were.

Sakura was bored. And lonely.

The one time she had run across Ino, who was probably also spending all day in whatever training ground her team had access too, damn her, the girl was chatting loudly as she dragged her teammates behind her through the streets. Sakura knew Ino should envy her for having Sasuke on her team, and yet the sight had made her heart clench painfully.

From the very first day, Sakura had known team bonding was going to be an uphill battle. After Kakashi had told them they had passed and dismissed them, he had disappeared to the Hokage’s tower to report their success, taking Naruto with him. That had left Sakura and Sasuke alone.

Hopeful, she had invited him to celebrate – lunch? A walk back to the center? But she was already talking to his back as he walked away without a response.

Sasuke had his own training grounds. He would come at 0500 to Training Ground 7 and wait around for exactly a half hour. When Kakashi-sensei did not come (because he had not even once arrived before 0800), he would go home, probably to train. If she tried to speak to him, he would answer, most of the time, but he always seemed preoccupied and uninterested. Besides, they were supposed to start at 0500 anyway, so Sakura normally started her warmups around then (it also let Sasuke see what a serious ninja she was, which she thought was a better impression than talking to him most of the time in any case).

On days Kakashi-sensei did arrive, if Sakura was still on the training grounds, he would send her to get Sasuke, and she would have to spend around an hour awkwardly loitering around the Uchiha compound until whatever jerk was on sentry duty finally found him. Which was so typically Uchiha, like, a compound guard – seriously? Who did they think they were? She also suspected they were as slow as possible just to be unhelpful, and so she hated going, but at the same time, she thought Kakashi-sensei might be helping her get some alone time with Sasuke, which she appreciated.

Kakashi-sensei had never sent her to find Naruto, at least. Not that she would have known where to look. If Sakura had already left, he would just come find her (not like it was hard, she was almost always at home, reading or watching TV), send her for Sasuke, and then go for Naruto himself.

At least she assumed he went for Naruto, but Kakashi-sensei often came back without him. If Kakashi-sensei was rarely at Training Ground 7, then Naruto was never there. There had even been an entire two week period where he had not bothered on coming even once.

When he did come, Sakura would slink deeper into the forested part of the training ground to do her exercises (even if Sasuke was there). She thought sometimes the boys talked a little, and she had seen Naruto doing a bit of training, but for the most part he seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time just waiting, as though he thought Kakashi-sensei was going to show up any second. She did not know what he did when he left, but he never spent too long there. Her opinion of him only got worse which each day: dead last, and he did not even try to improve. Still, she was glad that meant she mostly had the training ground to herself.

When Kakashi-sensei was in Konoha and they were gathered on Training Ground 7 together (meaning her and Sasuke, and sometimes Naruto as well), they would spend the rest of the day doing teamwork exercises and simulations. Those days were always hard, and Sakura had more than once dragged her bruised and exhausted body home only to find that the dinner laid out by her mother had long gone cold. Still, Sakura loved them best, especially when it was just her and Sasuke. That was practically a date. But even with Naruto, it was not so bad. It was worth it for the attention of the Hatake Kakashi. When Naruto would shut up and focus without picking a fight, at least.

Like the fight he had just started, for example. Sakura sighed.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

Kakashi-sensei had interrupted the normal routine of team drills to say that he was going to start teaching them new skills. But he had begun with an evaluation of their skills, and ruffled some feathers.

“Exactly what it sounded like.” Like always, Kakashi-sensei sounded bored.

“Your taijutsu is a problem. Your form is sloppy and your instincts are non-existent. You can’t just count on your pain tolerance to let you take every blow. Any real enemy would kill you with the first good hit. Realistically, it would take too long to train you to compete equally with your teammates in close quarters. Besides, your chakra reserves are huge. It would be idiocy not to take advantage of that.”

“I’m not worse than them!” Naruto shouted, throwing out a hand to point accusingly at Sasuke.

“It’s not about being better or worse. Team’s complement each other,” Kakashi-sensei said. He snapped his book shut. “This conversation is over. This is a combat team. You will be the long distance fighter.”

Naruto spluttered: “I can get better at taijutsu! You said it’s about instincts – but how can you get those if you don’t practice them, right? I’ll have the best instincts!”

Sakura wanted to snark that he could have practiced in the Academy, like everyone else.

“How indeed?” Kakashi’s voice was dry with sarcasm, but he took a different tack.

He sighed, a bone tired sound.

“Look, don’t you want to learn elemental ninjutsu?” Kakashi-sensei asked. “There’s plenty of wind techniques I can teach you. They’re very cool. And hip. All that.”

Naruto frowned, but was silent.

“Listen, ninjutsu is one of the fundamentals of any good shinobi’s arsenal. Your chakra capacity means you have the potential to be great at it.”

Naruto was still hesitating, but Kakashi-sensei knew how to hit the final blow.

“That is,” Kakashi-sensei said, “if you’re up to the challenge.”

Sakura rolled her eyes as Naruto finally allowed himself to be led away towards the line of trees by Kakashi-sensei’s clone. He put up another token resistance at first, but was soon bouncing ahead of the clone, gesturing excitedly. Typical.

The other two clones were still standing in front of them.

“Sasuke,” one said. “You’re more versatile. As the team leader, you’re going to have to know how to fill whatever role is called for. Your progress is fine. Come show me how you’re doing with the wires.”

Then it was just Sakura.

When his eye met hers she looked down, hoping the hitae-ate would hide her forehead. A wisp of pink hair floated into her vision, and she tried to discretely blow it out of the way. Damn it.

“You,” he said.

Then there was a weight in her hands.

“...you will have to take close combat. There’s not really a choice given Naruto’s taijutsu.”

It was a katana: lightly curved, heavy, but smaller than most of the ones she had seen before.

“The weight and size should be fine,” Kakashi-sensei said. “I commissioned it this month, so be careful with it. It’s yours now.”

She looked at him in confusion. He crinkled up his eye into his usual approximation of a smile. She was not sure if he was improving, or if it had just become less intimidating because at least it meant he was not looking at her.

“Watch me,” he said.

Then he was gliding slowly into the opening forms of a kata, his own, longer, katana held lightly in both hands. Sakura watched.

The sword was heavy in her hands, but she felt giddy.

She was finally going to learn something – something tangible! Her mother would be so proud!

She imitated his grip, eyes on his feet as she watched him switch forms. She slowly began to imitate his footwork, Kakashi-sensei nudging her back into position when she fell out of the unfamiliar stances.

“Stop,” Kakashi-sensei said, suddenly.

His presence at her side no longer felt encouraging, and she cringed away from meeting his gaze. Had she done something wrong?

“Have you been running?” He asked.

“Yes?” She was not sure if it was the correct answer.

His dark, empty eye looked her up and down, once and then again. Her hands itched to adjust her ponytail to better hide her forehead.

Sakura was glad she had been doubling the Genin Corps standard, so she could tell him that with pride when he asked her daily routine.

“Do four times that.”

She could not read any signs of approval or disapproval in his empty gaze.

“Okay!” She said. “I mean, yes, sensei!”

Then Kakashi-sensei’s hand was pressing her shoulders straighter into line again. He demonstrated another downward strike. She imitated.

“I’ll give you a kenjutsu routine as well. Do it twice a day,” Kakashi-sensei said.

“Yes, sensei!”

He slid into the next step. Sakura was not stupid; she understood that she had disappointed. She would do it three times a day. Taijutsu had never been her best, but she was better than Naruto, at least. If Sasuke was not going to specialize in close combat, she was the only option. And she would be the best option, so he could count on her (it would give her something to do during the afternoons).

Kakashi-sensei dismissed them earlier than normal, probably around five, based on the sun.

“I’m in town for the week. Don’t be late tomorrow,” he said before disappearing into a body flicker.

Sakura wanted to talk to Sasuke about what he and Kakashi-sensei had worked on together, wanted him to ask her about what she had worked on, to look at her sword, the sword that Kakashi-sensei had given to her and ask –

Sasuke grunted a late acknowledgement and turned away for home.

Sakura slumped in defeat, depressed. But that meant looking at her katana, which cheered her up in its own way. Kakashi-sensei had given her a scabbard, but she needed to figure out how to attach it to her uniform. Her mother probably had some standard belts laying around somewhere, or could probably get some from the workshop. But would it be better to buy some? Or put in a request to Supply for a uniform addition?

“I’m learning how to split leaves,” Naruto said.

His faced was scrunched up into a smile so big it seemed painful, forcing his eyes closed into little slits, but he was not looking straight at Sakura anyway, more like over her shoulder.

“With just chakra, I mean, isn’t that cool? It’s gonna be awesome when I get it down, you better believe it! My chakra’s gonna be, like, super sharp or something, and any time you cut someone up with your sword – which is cool, by the way, when did you get that? – it’ll be right there, like, slash! and they’ll be cut twice!”

That...was not how elemental chakra worked.

Sakura was torn between correcting him and telling him to get the hell away from her. She was not brave enough to do either, not when they were completely alone. With a buffer, like Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei or any of the teachers at the Academy, you knew you were safe. Naruto was lousy at taijutsu, but Sakura was new with the sword. And besides, it was not really the taijutsu she was worried about.

“You gonna go back home? I’m headed to the center,” Naruto said, still smiling blindly in Sakura’s very general direction.

“Kakashi-sensei told me I have to train more,” she answered. “I think I’ll stay and work on it.”

“Oh,” Naruto’s smile dimmed. “Well, it’s pretty early. I’m still not tired at all, you know! That elemental work is hard, but it’s like a brain thingy – doesn’t really tire you out, well, not Uzumaki Naruto!”

Sakura interrupted his rambling: “I’m going to go work on my forms. I need quiet to focus, so I’m just going to go to the forest, okay? Don’t mind me, you can keep working here if you want.”

Ten minutes later, she peaked back into the clearing (a much better place to practice the drills Kakashi-sensei had shown her). Naruto was gone, so she had space to practice.

.  
.  
.

Kakashi-sensei came late. He had promised that he would be back in a week to look at Sakura’s progress, but it had been almost two. Well, he had not promised, not exactly, but he had said he would be back in a week, and teachers were supposed to take their deadlines seriously. She was kind of starting to think that being late was a habit of his.

Sakura knew it was unfair to be upset, what with the offensive on Rain to help liberate Grass coming up, but she really wanted to get his feedback on the latest kata she was still having trouble with.

Kakashi-sensei did not really explain things, but he was good with physical instruction, and besides, you could only learn so much working by yourself. He was good at slowing himself down to her speed in their practice spars, and dragging them out until she collapsed with exhaustion – the first time she had even vomited! – and she felt like each session was worth days of her single practice. She had tried to get Sasuke to spar with her, but he had coldly refused. He probably thought she wanted it as a date, which she did, but it was still unfair, because she did really need to practice. She had barely been working with the katana for a month, and she was worried that too long without feedback could teach her bad instincts.

She was lying on the couch watching a trashy biopic romance about the First Hokage and his gorgeous wife while massaging her aching ankles when Kakashi-sensei finally came back. She did not have nearly as much free time now that she was spending so much of her day training, but it was Kakashi-sensei’s schedule, so it was not like she had complaints. She was less bored now, anyway.

That did not mean she was going to miss an episode of Saga of the Founders if she could help it, though. It might be trash, but it was her show anyway. That was why despite her impatience in waiting for Kakashi-sensei, she still felt a wave of bitterness when he appeared in her living room with a puff of smoke, blocking the TV just as Senju Hashirama reached out to the foreign princess to invite her to help him make a new world.

She knew the dialogue by heart.

“Together, you and I will be the builders of a better world!” The First Hokage called out.

Before Uzumaki Mito could answer that any world would be better as long as they were together, Kakashi switched off the TV with a flick of the remote.

Sakura considered growling. It was really unfair that he always came to find her first; otherwise, she might have had a chance to finish.

But instead of sending her off for Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei surprised her.

“Get gear together to leave Konoha. Duration unknown. Bags at the gate in an hour.”

“What?” She asked reflexively. “Are we going on a mission? Where? Already? What should I bring?”

She started to pull herself up into a sitting position, wincing at the pain in her abdomen as she did. She thought you were supposed to have warning before missions specifically so that you would not over-train.

Kakashi shot her the empty, judgmental gaze she had realized might be amusement.

“Not quite a mission,” he said. “I’ll explain on the way; just pack standard.”

Then he dispelled with another puff of smoke.

She waved it away with a slight cough. What did not quite a mission even mean? She felt like he took secrecy way beyond attractively-mysterious levels and well into creepy-and-will-never-get-a-girlfriend levels. She wondered if she should point it out. Then she remembered that that book he was always reading had turned out to be porn. Discretion was a shinobi virtue, she decided.

She was not sure what to write on the note for her mother, since she was not even sure what she was leaving for. She settled for: “Outside of city for a while. Don’t know how long. Will write if I can!” and signed with a heart next to her name.

After taping it to the fridge, she headed upstairs and got her bags. Kakashi-sensei might make a habit of lateness, but Sakura was going to have to rush if she wanted to be on time.

Sakura had gotten faster, so she managed to make it to the main gate 48 minutes after being summoned, using the roof access granted to genin-teams for missions or mission-related transportation.

Kakashi-sensei was already there, leaning casually against the tall brick gates. He had a small rucksack on his back, but looked the same as always, dressed in his normal jounin blues. Sakura’s bag was bigger, and she felt self-conscious, wondering if she had packed too much.

Naruto’s bag was smaller than hers too, which only made her feel worse. He was shuffling awkwardly in the shadow of the gate, standing beside the familiar figure of Uchiha Itachi. He had not been to the training ground in at least three days. It reminded Sakura of her time in the Academy, when Itachi would politely knock on the door and ask if Uzumaki Naruto-kun could please be excused for the day.

Sakura jogged up to the group and shot him a shy smile. Sasuke’s brother was handsome, and had always seemed so kind, but his reputation still made him somewhat intimidating.

He answered her smile with a soft one of his own, then floated away from Naruto toward where Kakashi-sensei was slouching. The two began to talk quietly amongst themselves, and so Sakura thought it only polite to address Naruto.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi.”

“You know what’s going on? Sensei wasn’t really clear when he came by for me,” she laughed nervously, patting down the top of her head to make sure her hair was tightly bound.

“No, haven’t been around. He caught us at the gates.”

“Um, okay, well he told me it was ‘not quite’ a mission, which was kinda weird; I didn’t really know what to tell my mom. So. I was just wondering, because it was weird.” Sakura found herself blabbering.

She expected Naruto to say something in response, but he seemed subdued and just nodded. Unsure of what more to do, she nodded back, and let the awkward silence sweep over them.

She had counted to 130 (after losing her place and restarting twice, so it probably was closer to five minutes) before Sasuke arrived.

“Hey!” She greeted him. “You excited, Sasuke-kun?”

He ignored her, glaring out of the gates. It seemed like Naruto was not the only one in a bad mood.

But with Sasuke finally arrived, Kakashi-sensei pulled himself away from the wall, approaching the three of them.

“Hope you’re not too tired, kiddies,” He said. “I know there wasn’t much warning, but I needed to get all three of you at a good time. We’ll go slow today just in case. Anyway, we’ll debrief mostly when we get there – why’s that, Sasuke?”

“OPSEC.”

Sakura expected Naruto to ask what that meant, but apparently he was not completely retarded and she was spared.

“That’s right. But for now, we can talk about the basics. We’re going to be out of the village for a while, but don’t worry, we’re not going to the front. We’ll be staying well within our territory, in the Land of Fire. You can consider this a training trip, I guess. We’re headed Southwest, in the direction of River.”

Itachi had returned to stand by Kakashi-sensei’s side, and as Kakashi-sensei finished speaking the two exchanged a glance. Kakashi-sensei gave him a lazy one-handed salute that Itachi returned by means of a respectful nod, before turning to Sasuke.

“Be safe, little brother. I’ll see you soon,” Itachi said.

Sasuke did not respond, turning his head empathically away, but Sakura thought she saw hints of red creeping across his face. How cute!

Kakashi gave a low snort, then motioned them into position behind him. She fell naturally into her place on the right wing.

Without a second of hesitation, Kakashi began to move forward. Letting the momentum of the team formation carry her forward, Sakura did too. And then they were past the gates, past Konoha. She put one foot in front of the next, walking on foreign soil.

“Pop quiz – what do you know about River Country, Sakura?”

She tried not to look back but could not restrain herself. The gates loomed tall and dark and the familiar chuunin manning them were hidden out of sight.

“The Land of Rivers is a client state of the Land of Fire. It served as Konoha’s buffer in the earlier wars, before the Suna-Konoha alliance was secured at the end of the Third Shinobi War...”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, sorry this chapter took so long! I got caught up in irl things (school started), and then I decided I didn’t actually like my original idea for this arch, and ended up scrapping my first plan for this chapter. So instead of skipping to the border, we get a chapter on the move. This chapter: a road trip, ninja-style. Next up: a look into life on a “peaceful” border. Please R&R, friends!

It took them two days to get to the border.

The first day was fast. And horrible.

Kakashi had driven them hard, and the run was longer than anything Sakura had ever done. She had not even eaten lunch yet when he had come to find her, and okay, maybe it was good for her diet, but it was still exhausting.

The first hour or so had passed in a sort of tense silence, but Sakura had been too consumed by her own thoughts to really notice. Thoughts like: what are we going to do? Where are we going? What is it like outside of Konoha? Will mom be worried?

An hour was not a long run, really, but the rhythm was fast, and by the time Sakura had pulled herself from her own thoughts to consider addressing her team, she found herself too short for air to talk.

It took enough effort to focus on other thoughts, like: how much longer? Will we get a break? How much longer til a break?

She focused on the pattern of her breathing, let herself sink into the tune of a running cadence. Occasionally, she took a greedy gulp from the flask of water at her right side, and wished she had remembered to refill it. Her legs ached.

She thought:

Burn the village, kill the people, throw some jutsu at the square. Do it on a Sunday morning, do it on their way to prayer.

One foot in front of the other in time with the beat, she ran.

Ring the bell inside the schoolhouse, watch those civvies gather round. Lock and load your tag explosive, blow them little motherfuckers down.

A glance at the boys showed that Naruto, on the left, had regained the energy he had been lacking earlier. He was breathing lightly, running with an absentminded smile on his face, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond his surroundings.

The words started to mix in her head: burn the village, ow, my legs ache, throw some jutsu at the ow.

It was harder to look at Sasuke, who was positioned in the back of their diamond formation, but she could hear the steady thud of his feet as he hit the next stop on the tree road exactly two heartbeats after she and Naruto left it behind. She was trying to control her breathing, but could not help occasional instinctual ragged wheezes for air. She could not hear Sasuke’s breath, but she imagined it was even.

Burn the well, burn the farmhouse, watch those civvies hit the ground.

Sakura found herself struggling to keep her mind on the words she had known by heart since she was young enough to count. She let a few notes escape her mouth in a hum, helping to focus her even as she lost precious air.

“The ‘C’ in cadence stands for silent!” Kakashi called, not bothering to turn around.

Together, she and Naruto hit the branch a second behind him.

“What’s wrong with that guy?” Naruto huffed, turning her way.

Sakura was not going to waste the breath to answer, but she met his eye and pulled a wry smile.

His grin was all blinding white teeth in return.

They were slow in hitting the next branch – Kakashi was already two ahead.

“You’re losing the beat,” Sasuke’s voice was too close behind her.

“Ugh, shut up,” Naruto said, making a sound between a whine and a groan. But he turned his focus back to the path in front of him.

Sakura turned back to the branchroad as well. She fell back into the familiar rhythm, and it was not hard to imagine Sasuke singing the same song inside his head.

Together they ran, silently.

Silently, while the warm afternoon began to cool with an evening breeze, and the shadows of the trees around of them grew longer, casting the forest beneath them into darkness. Silently, their own flitting shadows and the occasional squawking bird the only mark of the presence.

The evening stretched into the beginnings of a chilly night, and the lights of the stars, twinkling beyond the sparse canopy still above them, grew brighter. It was only when Sakura had finally reconciled herself to the idea that they might really be running all night long that Kakashi’s pace slowed to a loping jog, before he finally raised the two fingers that meant Sakura was free to collapse bonelessly down from the branchroad onto the ground and into the warm embrace of the scratchy bark of the tree trunk in front of her. The evening had completed the transformation into night, and she was satisfied that it was a final resting place and not a break.

That meant she could almost spare the breath to complain.

“You’re a jerk, sensei!”

For the second time that day, Sakura thought she might actually like Naruto. She saved her breath to finish off her water flask, and let his boundless energy carry her complaints for her.

Sasuke had dropped against a tree nearby her, still panting lightly, but he grunted his agreement as Naruto continued to harangue their teacher, arm thrown out in a dramatic accusation.

Neither Naruto nor Kakashi even looked winded.

“––and you could at least tell us anything! Like, what was Sakura-chan supposed to tell her mom, huh? What’s it even mean to not really be a mission, like, are we ever gonna do anything cool at all? I’m totally ready and we haven’t even––”

Sakura appreciated that Naruto’s ranting seemed to tire him out more than the run had. His voice flowed over her like a wave, but she was too tired to bother picking at the rambling words for meaning. She closed her eyes to appreciate the cool breeze against her sweaty skin and savor the last of the water still lingering in her throat.

Kakashi interrupted, finally. There was some noise, as though he was rummaging through his pack, but Sakura could not work up the energy to force her eyes open and see what he was doing. She rolled against the tree trunk until it was against her back, tilting her head back to catch the most of the wind trickling down between the branches to them from above.

“We’re headed for a border outpost,” he said. “I have some work there – routine – but it could take a while, and the area’s safe, so I decided it was time for you to get some experience. We’ll talk more about your duties once we’ve arrived.”

There was the clink that Sakura recognized as the opening of a tin can. The idea of food was tempting, but not enough to motivate her to move.

“If it’s soo routine, then what’s the rush, huh?” Naruto sounded suspicious. This time, when Sasuke grunted in agreement, Sakura’s grunt was in harmony.

“Hm? Well, I told you we would take it slow today, didn’t I?” Kakashi’s voice was light and empty.

Something inside Sakura imagined punching him into the dirt, stepping on his face and screaming her rage into his bloody ear.

“C’mon, kiddies, if we were going at a real pace, we would be there already. At this rate, we won’t even get in until tomorrow evening.”

Sakura imagined another day of the same. She was not sure whether to vomit or cry.

“But,” Kakashi said, “I guess you could say we’re trying to make up for the fact that I was supposed to be there three days ago.”

Yep, it was a habit. Naruto audibly spluttered in rage. Sakura could imagine the look of constipation on his face well enough by now, and she smiled at the mental image.

Nice to meet you, I’m Haruno Sakura, she imagined saying. I like sitting still and this tree. I dislike people that are always late.

“I’ve got some spam; you should all eat. Have some of my water, too,” Kakashi said. And then, because kindness was out of character: “Now who’s up for first watch?”

I’m Haruno Sakura. I like sitting still and this tree. I dislike people that are always late. My dream is to go to sleep.

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The second day was slow.

That was good, because Sakura was aching so badly she did not think she could go fast. Sasuke was moving normally.

Kakashi did not say anything as she winced her way through rolling up her sleeping pack the next morning, sore from head to toe, even in her arms. He made no comment, but his gaze was heavy, as heavy on her back as the weight of the katana in its scabbard, secured into place by a crisscrossing double set of straps.

She tightened her ponytail, fussing with the stray strands that escaped her bangs to hang limp across her forehead. Even those small motions were enough to make the undersides of her arms twinge in protest, and she bit her lip to suppress any sound of complaint.

It was obvious that the pace had been slowed for her. When they moved into their regular formation and she could feel Sasuke’s looming presence, slightly behind her left shoulder, she could not shake the feeling that he was glaring. When she worked up the nerve to turn to glance at him, though, his eyes were fixed on the branches ahead.

She rearranged her hitae-ate, making sure it covered as much of her forehead as possible. Now that they were moving, the small motions no longer raised such complaints from her tired muscles. But they still hurt.

Of course it was Naruto who mentioned it. She no longer liked his tactlessness.

“Kakashi-sensei, hurry up already! I wanna get there tonight, so we can sleep in real beds!” He said. “Wait a second, is that why we’re going so slow? You said yesterday we could get there before night, but now you’re not even trying!

“You bastard!”

Just as he was working his way into an impassioned rant, Sakura interrupted.

“Naruto, shut up!”

Then she slammed her mouth shut, horrified. She nearly missed the next branch, falling out of rhythm in shock at her own behavior. She had never been so rude to him, you were not rude to him, why would anyone be rude to him, why had she said that she did not know what was she thinking?!

But Naruto did not seem angry, just perplexed.

“But he’s messing with us, just like yesterday,” Naruto protested. “Don’t you want to get there tonight, Sakura-chan?”

Sakura could not help her mortified rage. She struggled over the start of a sentence.

“I… You…”

Then Kakashi chuckled, a dry and false sound, like all his attempts at friendly behavior.

“I meant at this pace, Naruto. Did you forget that I’d promised we would take it slow?”

It was Naruto’s turn to be incoherent with indignation.

But just because he was stupid did not mean Sakura was. Kakashi was saying that he had never even imagined she could keep up. He had planned for her to slow them all down.

Sakura felt the heat of an embarrassed flush on her face, and bit the inside of her cheek, hard.

The pain was not enough to distract her, and she had to blink hard to rid herself of the warm tears of frustration pooling at the edge of her vision.

Her fists clenched.

The second day was slow, and the relaxed pace meant there was space for conversation. The branchroad twisted and turned in large arcs to avoid areas where the forest had been cleared for the growth of local villages, and with enough pestering from Naruto, and occasional questions from Sasuke, Kakashi was willing to share some information on their surroundings. Sasuke perked up especially when Kakashi talked briefly about the role the region had played in the Warrior States Period before Konoha, when some clan or another that must have meant something to Sasuke lived in the area. He pointed out a plume of smoke that they could all see rising above the tree crests to the north, marking it out as the village in question.

“Of course, they were all killed in the Third War,” he said dismissively. “Too close to the border with Rain. The surviving family moved to Konoha: there’s still one left, nowadays.”

Kakashi asked her to explain the weather patterns in the region, in response to something Naruto had asked. She answered, but kept her response textbook short, because she did not want to gasp for breath between sentences. Not when it would be so obvious that even Naruto would see. Naruto chatted on obliviously.

Yes, the second day was slow, but it was far worse than the first.

They stopped for a break at some time around noon, and refilled their flasks at a nearby stream, that Kakashi said was called the Kamo.

“It’s a branch of the Shinano – the biggest river in the Elemental Nations,” he said. He looked at Naruto.

“The Shinano’s mostly in River, which is where River gets its name,” Sakura added at the silent prompting.

Sasuke rolled his eyes: “The other main branch that flows into Fire is the Sumida.”

“Huh, it’s not that big, though,” Naruto said, kicking a pebble above the river with enough force that it hit the other bank.

“The Shinano is the big one, idiot,” Sasuke repeated.

“Whatever.”

Naruto downed his flask in one long gulp, and then refilled it a second time. Kakashi’s single visible eye, fixed on Naruto, blinked slowly, but he said nothing.

Finally, Kakashi turned away, bending down to unseal the storage scroll he had been using to keep extra water. He waded into the river with the first of the now empty jugs stored inside, leaving the three of them behind to eat their ration bars on the bank.

It made Sakura feel slightly better that Naruto did not seem to understand that these obvious informational reviews were solely for his benefit. Only slightly, though, because while she liked having the chance to show what she was good at, she could tell the frequency of what she had been thinking of as Kakashi-sensei’s pop quizzes was annoying Sasuke.

She busied herself adjusting the straps holding her scabbard rather than look at him. She was probably annoying him more.

When Kakashi was done and they had all eaten a bland tasting ration bar or two, they continued at the same relaxed pace.

Kakashi seemed to know the region well, and he did not hesitate, even after they turned off of the well-worn branchroad and dropped onto the ground. The trees had started to thin out, and long stretches of grassy hills dotted with small huts and dirt shacks amidst patchy clusters of trees formed the new landscape.

They moved onto a dirt road for a while in order to avoid the chest-high grasses and maintain pace, but though the road looked well used, they did not run into anyone else en route. Sometimes, Sakura thought she could see figures moving in the low hills around them, or smokestacks rising from houses near the road, but by the time they approached, all signs of life had been extinguished.

She preferred the trees.

Just as Kakashi had predicted the day before, they arrived in the early evening, before the sun had finished setting, but when the half-moon was already brightly visible in the still-blue sky. The outpost was guarded by a tall wooden wall, easily fifty feet high, leaving the only thing visible within a single tower behind the entry gates that reached above the wall’s heights by a dozen or so feet. The gates faced them, but the tower was clearly built to provide a vantage point in the other direction. Sakura squinted forward, but looking into the gently sloping foothills in front of them, she could not tell where the border line was drawn.

“Wait here,” Kakashi said, when they were a couple hundred feet from the gates.

He disappeared in a puff of smoke before getting their acknowledgement. Sakura had the nasty thought that it would be just like him to leave them there all night, but he was back in a few minutes, walking them through the gates in his normal lazy slouch, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

No one stopped or questioned their approach. They passed through the wooden gates and into a courtyard, lined with short wooden buildings that barely reached half the height of the wall around them. Despite the large size of the yard, it was deserted. Sakura thought she saw a shadow through the window of one of the buildings, but when she stopped for a second glance, she could not tell for sure. The emptiness gave the yard an eerie aspect, and she quickly hurried to fall back into her position nearer to Kakashi.

She cleared her throat to ask something, but he did not turn to look at her, continuing his course for the tower at the far end of the courtyard, so she let the question subside.

Naruto was looking around with a strange expression as well, and when she slowed to get a better look at Sasuke she could tell he was unnerved as well. But for once, Naruto decided on tact. She was always changing her opinion about that.

Kakashi pushed open the door to the tower with a gloved palm, revealing a medium-sized foyer. There was a desk littered with a few stray papers pushed against the left wall, and two chairs facing uneven angles sitting near it. Besides that, the room was empty save for a spiraling wooden staircase leading towards what must have been multiple upper floors.

Kakashi stopped suddenly, tilting his head to the side. Sakura froze, tension enveloping her, every aching muscle protesting. The boys stiffened as well, and Kakashi exhaled a quiet snort. His eye curved into the familiar half-wink. It could not quite pass for a smile, but Sakura still found herself relaxing.

Then Kakashi’s hand was around her shoulder, she was pressed against his side –

– and she could smell Sasuke, that unique tang of smoke and something vaguely minty, feel the warmth of his body against hers, and she grabbed for it as she was pulled into a tunnel, twisting, flying through the air, the world falling away before her like time was moving backwards, the ground disappearing into shoots of wood that left bright afterimages when she closed her eyes against the sudden wave of nausea while she spun and spun and spun –

She opened her eyes after the Body Flicker and found herself on the observation deck of the tower.

She swallowed down the bile that had risen in her throat, and Sasuke quickly pushed away from her.

She could see Naruto jumping away from Kakashi’s other side, but she moved away more slowly, waiting to feel steady on her feet.

The room looked the same as the foyer, with the same two chairs, but there was a large open window facing west, just an opening in the wall, and no desk in the corner. Above them, the ceiling rose into a peaked roof, and she thought she could see nests for carrier pigeons in its nooks.

The staircase they had bypassed was to their right, and in front of it two figures were standing. A dark-haired man in uniform stood, his back to them, facing a middle-aged female. Her features were obscured by the man’s figure, but it Sakura could see part of a lined face, long brown hair, and some kind of threaded sack clutched in her hands.

There was a second in which the two figures stayed in their silent stand-off, oblivious to or ignoring their presence.

“Yo.”

Kakashi cleared his throat exaggeratedly, and both heads turned.

“Fuck, captain, I’m glad you’re here,” the man said, taking a step towards them.

The woman dropped the bag she had been holding to bury her head in shaking hands.

“Why won’t you monsters just leave?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild exploration and Sakura proves once and for all that it's her team that causes all the social awkwardness not her, god dammit. Next up: Sakura collects food for the Home Front.

The woman’s lumpy sack hit the ground with a solid thump.

“Why won’t you monsters just leave?”

Sakura flinched. She snuck a glance at Sasuke, but he was calmly inspecting the watchman.

“Pick that up, would you?” It was a question in the tone of an order. The shinobi did not turn his head to look at the woman, but it was obvious he was addressing her.

There was a short pause. Sakura felt the urge to fetch the sack herself. Sasuke’s stillness dissuaded her.

Kakashi stared blankly at the other shinobi, not even sparing the woman a glance.

Slowly, as though in great pain, she lifted the bag from the ground. Her hands shook. Sakura felt compelled to look away.

There was another pause.

Still without turning, the shinobi held out his right hand. The woman passed on her package, reluctantly.

“It’s good to see you too, Renji,” Kakashi said. “Sorry I’m late, but I had to round up three whole genin to make it here – you wouldn’t believe the places they disappear to.”

Renji did not seem to mind, but Sakura felt acutely guilty once more.

He gave the group a once over. He was a stocky man with short, dark hair and a typical Fire look to his squashed features. But his gaze was open when it floated over her, and his lips quirked in something of a friendly greeting.

“Right,” he said. “The good old days. Fuck, it’s good you’re here, though. Man, we’ve been depleted.”

“My kiddies will be a help there!” Kakashi responded cheerfully. There was a squawk of protest as he gave Naruto’s hair a quick rustle.

“For now, why don’t you escort our friend out of here?” Kakashi lifted his chin to point out the civilian woman. “Then go by the barracks – I’ve already gotten you three checked in.”

“Go on,” he repeated. “The big boys have to talk for a bit. Go get settled, I’ll come get you in ten.”

Kakashi and Renji stood silently, facing each other at a distance in an awkward stillness.

It was obvious their presence was a bother.

“Let’s go,” Sasuke said gruffly.

He approached the civilian woman, and looked significantly towards the stairs. She went.

As Sakura passed Renji on the way to the staircase, he met her eye. Giving her an exaggerated wink, he offered her the sack held by the neck in his left hand.

“Bring these to our boys in the barracks, alright? Help you make some friends.”

She accepted it with both hands. Holding it to her chest, she had to peer to the left to see the thin staircase as they descended.

Through the unsecured folds at the top of the sack, she could see that it was full of pears.

“Sweet!” From behind her, Naruto could obviously see inside as well.

He reached a hand over her shoulder to try to grab at the fruits. She swatted him away without looking, but did not suppress her smile.

“So show me these patrol routes,” Kakashi said from behind her, voice already fading.

It was only by reaching the bottom that Sakura learned they had been on the fourth floor. When they were on the ground floor once more, the woman paused.

Her lined face and tangled long hair gave her the look of a wild animal when she turned to them.

“We’ll take her to the gate,” Sasuke said.

He sounded assertive, but glanced back at Sakura, as though for confirmation. She nodded emphatically.

“Right, that’s definitely what Kakashi-sensei would mean by taking her out.” Probably?

Sasuke’s eyes slipped over Sakura’s shoulder to Naruto, looking for an additional endorsement. Naruto was silent. When Sakura turned to him, he was glaring at the sack of pears with a strange look.

He looked up, then caught Sasuke and Sakura’s expectant stares.

“Huh? Yeah! Definitely.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura shot a wry twist of the mouth in his direction and felt a slight thrill at their shared moment when he met her eyes.

“Go on,” Sasuke turned back to the civilian woman. “You know the way.”

Sakura wanted to try for a conversation, but the woman’s darting eyes and unwashed look added to the emptiness of the fort and unnerved her. Instead, the three of them followed the woman in silence back across the courtyard all the way to the gates. This time, Sakura thought she could see a solitary figure standing above them.

They stood at the entryway for a long minute, waiting as she slowly slunk away from them. Eventually, she turned off the road into the bend of a small hillock, and began to fade from view.

Sasuke grunted and turned away.

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All Konoha border outposts had the same design, so locating the barracks was elementary.

The room was a narrow hallway, with eight bunkbeds lined along its side. At the far end of the hall was a door, leading to the next room of barracks. Near that door were two men, seated around the room’s single table. From under the set of central bunks, four faces swung around to stare at them.

The sole girl in the room stood to greet them. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, with only two bangs hanging loose, and her cheeks were decorated with red clan markings. She looked a few years older than Sakura, and incredibly professional in her sharp chuunin vest and uniform.

“Great to meet Captain Hatake’s genin! I’m Inuzuka Hana,” She beamed at them, revealing sharp canines. “There’s not that many of us right now, so you can take whatever empty bunks you want.”

Her eyes flickered to Naruto, but her smile held. “You know, if you want, you guys could just take the next room. All for yourselves! That one’s totally empty, what luck, right?”

“Wow, thanks!” Naruto reached up to rub the back of his head. “We’re super lucky, right guys?”

He made to make a move forward, but Sasuke grabbed the back of his pack with one hand, holding him in place.

Hana’s smile faltered.

Sasuke shot her a withering glare. Still, it was enough. Instead of holding Naruto back, he gave him a shove. Naruto protested with a yelp, but Sasuke was already stalking forward, momentum pushing Naruto on before him.

Sakura thought he was probably being unfair: it was easy for Sasuke to play brave around Naruto. Not everyone was an Uchiha.

Sakura realized she had dawdled by the door, and jumped to follow the boys.

“Thanks, Hana-san,” she said first. Then, saluting awkwardly around her load, spoke to the room in general: “We really look forward to working with you, and are honored by the opportunity to do so!”

Hana gave her a friendly nod. A few men chuckled.

“Aw, c’mon, you might as well sit a bit,” A shaggy, fair-haired man, also around Hana’s age, spoke up from one of the bunks, patting the empty space beside him where she had been sitting. “Let’s see whatcha got there, at least, looks like a care package from the boss.”

He gestured to the sack that she was still clutching in both arms. Sakura flushed, glancing to the door before her. Naruto and Sasuke were already out of sight inside the next room.

“Um,” she stuttered. “Your captain? I think? Gave me some peaches for you guys. A woman had them. Renji-san, that is. I mean, your captain, Renji-san.”

The blond man laughed outright.

“Well, bring them over!” Hana said, all canine smiles once more. She bent back under the top beams of the bunkbed to sit on the bottom mattress. Sakura hesitantly walked to her side.

“Here,” she offered, thrusting out the sack. Then she realized that was silly, and propped it on the ground in between the two beds.

She turned to follow her teammates. The blond man laughed again, even as he reached into the bag for a fruit.

“C’mon,” he grinned up at her, taking a juicy bite. “Don’t you want one?”

“Um, yeah. Thank you, I meant to say!” Sakura bent to grab one of her own. Before she could fish one out, a Hyuuga boy sitting on the other bunk caught her wrist in a light grip.

“Not so fast!” Hana said cheerfully, giving Hyuuga an exaggerated thumbs-up. He nodded to her, and released Sakura’s wrist.

“You gotta chat with us first!” Hana said. “We’re all bored locked up here, the unlucky ones, you know. They took eighty percent of the garrison up North for the Rain offensive – I mean, took them for some mysterious cause no one knows anything about because that would be classified and everything I just said was totally supposition – but here we are, stuck on grain req! It’s a total bore.”

“Sit down already,” the Hyuuga said. His voice was bored, but forceful enough that Sakura took it as an order.

She plopped herself down onto the ground in between the two bunks, taking the moment to grab a pear herself. Her legs ached in protest, and the ground was cold.

The Hyuuga helped himself as well, as did the other dark-haired, long-faced boy sitting at his side. He looked a bit older than the others, but young enough that Sakura did not feel uncomfortable.

Hana was still distracted: “But if the Copy Ninja is here, there must be something interesting planned!” She was practically gushing, “Tell us about him! What’s that even like? Being on a team with him?”

There was a snort behind her. Sakura turned to see that the older two men that had been sitting by the table had come to stand near the beds. The taller one, bald and looming, pushed past Sakura to dig around in the sack.

“More like what’s it like being on a team with that kid,” He sneered. Two ripe pears in hand, he returned to his seat.

There was a second of silence before his companion followed.

“Hah, which one of ‘em?” The blond at Hana’s side broke the tension, scrunching up his pug-like nose.

He laughed at his own joke. “Really, though, tough to get an Uchiha too, huh? Seems like a real typical type.”

Sakura felt the usual urge to defend Sasuke.

“He’s Itachi-sama’s brother, you know,” She said. And then, because that made her feel a little guilty too: “My whole team is great.” It felt weak, even to her own ears.

“Yeah, well, Captain Hatake must really be something, huh?” Hana seemed eager to resume her previous track. “Have you gotten a chance to see him in action?”

“Not really,” Sakura answered. “We haven’t really been doing anything, yet.”

She took a bite of her pear, still feeling uncomfortable. She stared at the fruit to avoid meeting Hana’s expectant look.

“Oh man, did I ever tell you guys about the time I was on a mission with him?” The blond started.

“Bull shit, Koji,” Hana snapped. “No one believes the black ops was ever scouting you, so just drop it already.”

The dark-haired boy opposite snorted in response: “Right, ‘cuz Miss Backwater Base is the expert now?”

Hana gave a frankly animalistic snarl in response.

Sakura flinched backwards, but Koji was chuckling again.

“C’mon, you guys, play nice for our guests.” He said, lightly chucking the remaining core of his pear at the boy across from him.

Smiling gamely, the boy leaned forward to catch it in his mouth. He missed, and the core bounced against his chuunin vest before rolling into his lap.

Hana snorted, but in an amused way. The boy grinned back at her, and she reached for the sack and dug out her own pear.

The silence was comfortable, and Sakura turned back to the soft sweetness of her pear. Her legs ached. It was the best pear she had ever had.

She chewed slowly, wringing the juice out of each bite.

“Some civvie brought these,” Sakura said, contemplating her fruit. “A lady, I mean. She seemed upset, I guess.”

“Locals are always like that, you’ll get used to it – I’m Nobu, by the way,” The dark-haired boy said.

“Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you,” Sakura nodded as deeply as she could without moving from her position.

“No, really, we’re the ones glad to see you guys,” Hana spoke around her pear. “Suna’s scheduled to patrol around here real soon – then we’ll do a joint tour of Water. We heard they’re sending their best, so we gotta look good. I guess Hatake should take care of that.”

“Suna? But aren’t we allies?” Sakura asked.

“Fuck no, c’mon, they didn’t even mobilize when the Stone bastards declared on us. Allies, what the hell? How could you think that?” Koji’s snigger was patronizing.

So was Hana’s sneer.

The Hyuuga gave a sigh, then turned to look at Sakura with those terrifying, blank eyes.

“They run patrols through River Country regularly, just like we do,” He explained. “Well, our patrol squads, that is. But they also get a patrol past all the way down to our border every month or so on old treaty lines – just like we do. We have to put up a strong showing, so they don’t get any ideas when they see that there isn’t much movement along this border. The last thing we need is another front.”

“That’s why sensei was called here!” Sakura was proud of catching on so quick.

“Yes. You most likely accompanied your teacher because we have been low on manpower,” the Hyuuga continued. “Our task is limited to grain recquisition, but we could certainly use more hands at this time.”

“But,” Sakura felt suddenly apprehensive. “I think we’re just here to train. It’s not like we can really help. We’re all genin, we’re not, like, that strong.”

She knew it was untrue of the boys as soon as she said it, and felt hot shame pooling up in her stomach again.

“Hah, you really don’t gotta worry about that,” Koji rolled his eyes. “We just deal with civvies. It’s seriously no biggie at all, pretty damn boring ‘round here, like Hana said. It’s why all we do is hang around, anyway.”

“And gossip like a bunch of girls,” Nobu looked significantly in Hana’s direction.

She pouted with exaggeration at his gaze, but did not seem to take offense.

“Speaking of gossip, you really still haven’t told us about what it’s like to have such a famous teacher,” Hana’s voice was teasing. “Come on, Sakura-chan! Spill! You know you want to.”

“Let me think,” Sakura wished desperately she had something funny to say.

Trying to think of a good anecdote, she leaned back and let her gaze wander. The two older men at the table were making no effort to hide their eavesdropping, heads cocked in her direction. Behind them, she could see a flash of white, and some kind of movement, through the open doorway.

Sakura scrambled to her feet with a jolt of protesting limbs.

“I forgot! Let me put my stuff down, sorry, Kakashi-sensei said he was going to get us right away, I really have to get my things down!” She explained.

She hoped the boys were not mad: it was not her fault that they were… Well, that people liked her better.

On her feet, she reached for the sack to grab some extra fruits for them. Hana shook her head, and the Hyuuga’s hand stopped Sakura’s once again.

“Nope!” Hana said. “Only people who share stories get to share loot.”

“C’mon,” Koji teased in a wheedling tone, “Just one?”

The Hyuuga’s grip was loose, and he let Sakura retract her hand.

Sakura had a good excuse, and decided to go with it.

“Sorry, really should hurry! He hates when people are late.”

The pears were not that important. She hurried into the next room, avoiding the complaints from behind her.

Sasuke and Naruto had unpacked onto the bottom bunks nearest to the door. Sasuke was sitting on his, inspecting his kunai. Naruto was floating around the room, peering out its windows at the different views of the courtyard.

She shut the door behind her, then hurried to the third bunk to claim her own bed. It was next to Naruto, but that was probably okay. Besides, taking one further away would be provocative.

“Sakura!” Naruto spun to look at her.

He hesitated, giving her a once over. Then, rubbing a hand against the back of his head, he pressed his face into his familiar squinted smile.

“Oh, I mean, great we have a room to ourselves, believe it!”

“Right,” Sakura agreed weakly.

She shrugged off her rucksack and katana.

“Kakashi-sensei came already,” Sasuke said.

Sakura spun to look at him, but he did not turn to face her.

“Yeah, yeah, he flickered in and out!” Naruto pranced away from the windows back towards the bunks. “You just missed him! He said we’re done for the day. Just we gotta wake up tomorrow at, like, early, and he’ll give us an assignment! Oh, what d’you think it’s gonna be?! Our first team assignment!”

“Um, was he mad I wasn’t here?” Sakura asked. “I mean, what time, sorry?”

“0500,” Sasuke had begun inspecting his wires.

“Oh man, maybe there’s a princess we gotta save, or a village! I can’t wait to show them what I’ve been working on – I bet no one here has ever seen Wind Style before! Oh, Sakura, I can show it to you too! Remember how I was splitting the leaves – well I got it all figured out, you know. Nothing can stop Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!”

Sakura tuned Naruto out easily and gratefully began to prepare herself for an early bed. Her tired body ached and the ration bar was dull on her tongue. Maybe tomorrow there would be more pears.

.  
.  
.

The next morning dawned damp and misty. Sakura awoke feeling refreshed, and though her leg muscled still burned, it was the kind of pain easily ignored with movement. The other room was quiet when they left, and Sakura kept the door shut between them.

Nonetheless, she saw Nobu loitering near the tower on the other end of the courtyard, and gave him a cheerful salute. He returned it, and whistled a greeting callsign, but made no move to approach.

Kakashi was waiting for them near the gates. Naruto bounded towards him with his usual unceasing frenetic energy, already badgering him about their assignment.

“– to Wind Country? To River? To the Shikano?”

“Shinano,” Sasuke corrected under his breath with a huff. Naruto did not seem to hear.

“Nothing so exciting, I’m afraid,” Kakashi gave Naruto’s hair a careless ruffle, curving his visible eye into a wink. “You guys will be working with the local squad on grain requisition, filling in for all the personnel that’s been reassigned recently. Tomorrow one of them will take you on a tour, show you the ropes. Today is just for catching up. I want to see how you’ve been doing.”

Naruto deflated like a dying rabbit.

“Don’t look so disappointed, you’ll hurt my feelings!” Kakashi pressed a hand to his chest with exaggerated emotion, but spoke in steady monotone. “If you want an assignment so bad…”

“Yes!” Naruto shouted.

“Hmm,” Kakashi put a finger to his chin. “Well then, I guess…”

“Yeees?” Naruto leaned forward, tipping precariously.

“Your assignment is catch and subdue. Go!”

He disappeared with a spiral of leaves, leaving Naruto blinking at the sudden gust of air.

“Formation three,” Sasuke ordered.

Sakura instinctively fell into step at his left side, and could feel Naruto doing the same on his right.

“Let’s get him!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter: the author comes back from the dead, shinobi go to work, and Sakura learns a lesson she won’t forget. 
> 
> THIS IS WHERE THE NEW CONTENT STARTS COMPARED TO THE DEAD VERSION :)

Grain requisition was important. The city of Konohagakure could not produce enough food to feed its citizens on its own: that was what the countryside was for. But villages near the border were always possible havens of deliberate treachery during wartime. Quotas had to be met, hoarders sniffed out, wreckers dispatched. It also wasn’t really about grain, there were plenty of fruits and vegetables needed for a balanced diet! Sakura had already squabbled about this with Naruto more than once. 

It was an important job, but Sakura thought it was fun too. It made her feel powerful.

Their job was simple: logistics set the quotas, transportation collected them, and, in between, requisition made sure the quotas were met. 

The head of the outpost, the jounin from the tower named Takahashi Renji, had told them that requisition was the link that kept the chain together, the essential element that was almost invisible as long as the process was working as it should. It all sounded very professional to Sakura. Very noble, in that understated way that all true shinobi were. 

A normal day on duty went like this:

At 0650 Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto would muster in the courtyard to wait for Koji, who had been assigned to lead their squad. 

Hana, Hyuuga Hiroji, Nobu and Koji were technically assigned together as a chuunin squad under Hana (who was in turn under Renji), but now that Team Seven had arrived they served different duties. 

Thanks to their clan techniques, Hiroji and Hana were too important as scouts to be spared around the countryside, especially now that everyone was waiting for the Suna squad to appear. Sakura had learned that Hana’s three dogs were constantly patrolling on the River side of the border, and reported back at every new human scent.

Nobu tagged along with them on occasion, more out of boredom than anything else. Mostly he swapped gate duty with the single other kunoichi at the base, a pretty purple-haired girl that avoided their company. Sakura had seen her from afar but never spoken to her – the girl did not even seem to come back to the barracks to sleep. 

The two older men at the base were more experienced chuunin and made their own requisition runs alone. Sakura was on alright terms with them, but they never made the effort at friendliness that the others, closer to her own age, did, and most nights they were content to keep to themselves instead of mingling with the chatter and games of Hana’s squad.

At exactly 0700 Koji would appear with their assignment, sometimes with Nobu in tow. Then they would set off together for the village in question. 

Sakura’s impression of the region had not changed from the first, painful journey there. The rolling, empty hills, with their tall grasses and dark hollows were as spooky as ever. The lack of tree cover made her feel constantly exposed, and the unfriendly, sideways looks of the ragged civilians they passed only ever added to her sense of paranoia. 

Once they arrived at the target location, Koji would take charge. Sakura had come to like him: he was friendly and quick with a joke on base, though sometimes rude, and definitely too forward, but on duty, he was always professional – he even talked more professionally, without his usual drawl. His blond-hair was too dark to be Yamanaka, and though he still had something of those too-distinctive features that proved a history of inherited chakra manipulation, his last name didn’t ring any bells in her memory. She liked that: it was nice to look at him and imagine, yes, this was possible, this was a goal, a standard, she could reach. (Kakashi was nowhere to be found, he was busy, busy, busy and they hadn’t seen him in so much as weeks).

Most of the time their targets were small nearby settlements; she always felt it was an exaggeration to call them villages. A group of squalid huts, meager fields, a few large barns, scrawny, dirty children underfoot and a single representative, the only villager with whom the shinobi were to have verbal communications. 

Naruto tried to disobey that rule, at least a few times, but Sakura privately thought the rule was much more for the villagers’ benefit than their own. Maybe Naruto was so used to people being afraid of him that he couldn’t feel their fear, but she found it almost stifling. 

Their job was simple: arrive, summon the representative, wait while Koji read him the list of requisitions, find a suitable location to activate the large sealing scroll (it was better if it was done inside, in case of rain, but only the largest of barns ever had enough area to unroll it, and most frequently they just cleared out the flattest ground they could find, and pitched a tarp if necessary), and supervise good collection. When everything was gathered in its correct location on the scroll, Koji would seal it, and they would return to base as unburdened as they had left it. Fuinjutsu was truly incredible. 

She had mentioned as much to Sasuke, but she seemed to have angered him somehow, and he steadfastly ignored her. Naruto wasn’t really an appropriate target to gush to about it, either. She ended up trying to interrogate Koji as to how it worked, but he seemed just as clueless as she. The only thing he was clear on, was that such scrolls were rare and expensive, they had exactly one of them, and that she better not muck it up during activation.

She didn’t really understand what that could mean.

“Just be careful,” Koji responded. “Seals can be fussy, if you know what I mean.”

He didn’t look at Naruto, but he didn’t have to.

Since then, she’d been doubly careful about the ink, and had insisted they set up the tarp no matter what the weather when there was no suitable location indoors. 

Today seemed to be lucky, though. Their target was on the larger side in comparison to previous settlements, just a mile or two off a well-worn dirt road leading towards the border, and they had quickly found a place to settle in a fairly large grain barn.

The wizened elder who represented the settlement had already hobbled off to give directions to his people by the time they finished, but the surroundings were still quiet.

Her team split silently by habit, but it was a short wait for the first civilians to appear. Sasuke took the central section of the scroll, Sakura the left, and Naruto the right, as always. She had a series of vegetables and quantities, and patiently guided the civilians to put their goods in the right location, after a quick inspection of course. 

“We don’t have it!” A women refused. 

She was probably no older than Sakura’s mother, but with the leathery, worn skin of a farmer that made her look much older. 

Sakura sighed. For goods to fail quality inspection was one thing – and even fairly understandable, in a region as desolate as this. Koji had instructed them to be fairly lenient in these cases, and they sometimes even allowed the target to keep its supplies if the goods in question were of too poor a quality to be sent to the Konoha. It would be marked, of course, and they would run a site inspection later to insure that they hadn’t been simply shown the worst product, but as long as the settlement could redeem itself by the next requisition, a miss or two was forgivable.

Failing a quantity inspection, however, was not. Requisition norms for a region were decided in the center, but the local distribution was decided at its nearest operating base, and they had a Hyuuga at base, like, come on, who did these civvies think they were fooling?

“You’re a good five kilos short,” Sakura said, aiming for tonelessly. She tried to imitate the same impatient, supremely uninterested way Kakashi discussed almost anything – from the weather to the Hokage’s orders. Unfortunately, it seemed her tone wasn’t nearly as intimidating, because the woman refused to back down.

“I’m telling you, we don’t have it!” The woman refused to release the last sack of radishes in her hands. “This is the very last! If you take it we won’t have anything at all, my children will starve!”

Sakura resisted the urge to scoff, but felt an uncertain pressure as heads began to turn in the direction of the woman’s shouting. 

“There’s no need to make a scene,” she urged, speaking firmly, but in a softer voice. 

It was too late, and she heard discontented murmurs in the line behind her troublesome target. 

“Listen, ma’am,” Sakura began. “Put down the sack, and if you insist you can’t meet your norms, our squad leader will inspect your settlement.”

She was interrupted before she could finish (with a reminder that, hello, lying to a shinobi of Konohagakure is a crime!)

“Sakura,” Naruto was suddenly next to her. “Listen, we don’t really need that, it’s not as though Koji checks, y’know?”

He had reached a hand out to her arm, and she jerked away from him in a snappy movement. “Are you kidding? Get back to your side! Who’s watching the seals?” 

“Listen to the boy,” Came a voice from the line before Sakura, but she couldn’t identify who had spoken.

Great, Naruto was fermenting a literal rebellion. What else.

She glanced at Sasuke, who was looking in their direction from his place at the head of his line. He didn’t say anything.

“It’s just a little girl,” another voice came from the crowd before her.

Sakura couldn’t hold back. She needed to act decisively to put this to rest. They had a duty, and just because Naruto had no one he cared about in Konoha didn’t mean Sakura was going to be responsible for her mother going hungry.

She snatched at the sack of radishes, held tightly in front of her, pulling it from the woman’s arms in own movement. The civilian’s grip was weak, and Sakura almost overbalanced, expecting more resistance. 

“Monster!” The woman hissed, spittle flying from her mouth.

Sakura flinched away – water near the seal, it was dangerous! 

It was a mistake. The movement was taken as a weakness, and suddenly a crowd was surging forward, hands reaching for the bags already carefully stacked around the appropriate seals, with cries of “don’t be scared, it’s just a kid!”, various threats, calls to “pass it along, Hiruko!” and most of all: “hurry, hurry, hurry, before the older one gets back!”

Sakura only hesitated for a split second, dropping the sack where she stood, before pushing forward to meet the crowd. She didn’t bother looking to Naruto for support, pushing herself into the path of a tall, burly man, now leading the crowd, before he could step onto the scroll.

“Return to order!” She shouted, but he was still moving forward, towards the scroll, towards her, and her voice sounded high-pitched and weak, like a child’s.

He took one more step, then another, and suddenly he was reaching forward, but not for the goods, for her, and his hand was closed into a fist and she felt a stinging sensation in her chest and the air went out of her in one large rush and she was falling back onto her butt –

She fell, instinctively lashing out with the katana that was never far from hand. The unexpected shock of hitting the ground brought her back to her senses, and she rolled herself back to her feet with much more grace than she had shown in falling, hand to her stomach, feeling for damage. A half-second of reflection and she realized her stomach didn’t even hurt, it had been a weak blow for such a large man, it had only been unexpected. 

She huffed, feeling encouraged, and looked back up at the civilians that she had forgotten in her moment of shocked tunnel vision. They had fallen silent and faded backwards, out of the danger zone of the scroll. All their eyes were on her, Sakura realized, wide and shocked, as shocked as she had felt.

“Sakura-chan, you…” Naruto’s voice was heavy with some feeling Sakura couldn’t name.

A gurgled noise interrupted her thoughts. The man who had hit her was lying on the ground, blood flowing from the gash neatly bisecting his torso. His hand twitched, still extended in a mockery of the weak punch. His body thrashed once, twice, then went still.

Mizuki-sensei’s voice floated through her mind. When mission parameters are exceeded, refer to the nearest superior officer. And Suzume-sensei’s: a shinobi never shows emotion.

His body wasn’t touching the scroll. It was okay. 

Sakura made eye contact with the woman who had refused her the radishes.

“Go away, Naruto,” she hissed. And then, louder: “Return to order. I need five more kilograms of radishes. Next item is onions. Get in line.”

She stood still, unwavering, until the crowd slowly reformed into its previous orderly line. Naruto’s presence by her side faded, but she didn’t turn to look. 

She substituted outside the barn, lighting a blue flare, and returning before she saw it explode.

Hands faintly trembling, she reached for the outstretched sack, laying it neatly into place amongst the others.

She very carefully didn’t look at the thing on the floor. 

Someone found the missing sack of radishes. She nudged it into place unthinkingly. They moved on to onions. 

She flinched back at the touch to her arm, expecting Naruto. Koji smiled down at her.

“Well done,” he said. “Why don’t you go outside? I’ll take it from here.” 

.  
.  
.

The journey back was uncomfortable. Naruto had attached himself to Koji almost immediately when the man reappeared at the fence, bringing an impassioned speech to bear. Koji seemed to ignore him completely, bringing them into formation with a sign, but made no move to actually shut Naruto up.

“We can’t take so much, squad leader!” He was protesting. “You saw how skinny they are, it shouldn’t have to come to that! It’s not right, they won’t have anything left for themselves, they could starve! We should be helping them, not making it worse!”

“It’s necessary,” Koji said in a tone that brooked no discussion. 

Naruto was uncowed. 

“Come on, y’guys, you’ve got to agree with me, you saw! They were just desperate!”

Sasuke was staring at Sakura. She could feel his gaze heavy on her back and it excited her, but made her too embarrassed to form any sort of response.

“We do what we’re told. It’s our job,” Sasuke said, without any sort of audible emotion. 

She risked a glance in his direction, but couldn’t read anything in his dark eyes.

Naruto gave an angry squawk, but didn’t respond. Then he was racing forward, out of formation, fists clenched tightly. Koji made no move to stop him.

The rest of the journey back to the barracks with quick and silent. Sakura focused on the chakra in her feet, the road ahead of her, and very intentionally did not look into the gloomy, rolling hills around her. 

When they arrived at the barracks, Naruto immediately disappeared into their room, even as Nobu rolled off his bunk to greet them. 

Sakura was in no mood to stay and chat. She moved to follow.

“Wait,” With a poof of the smoke of an unsealing, Koji extended a bulging sack towards Sasuke and Sakura. “Got extra. Pears again, only really sweet shit there is this time of year, but I can’t complain, they’re good here, aren’t they?” 

Sasuke shot Koji a look of complete disgust. 

“That was unnecessary.” He left the room.

“Well, what can you do,” Koji smiled, scrunching up his short nose. “It’s impossible to make friends with an Uchiha, huh? Typical. Anyway, they’re both pretty dramatic, huh? If they’re gonna starve, a dozen fruit won’t save ‘em. You want?”

Sakura looked at the open bag, thinking of the soft juice flowing easily from pierced skin. Thinking of how easy it was to pierce a stomach the same way. Thinking of the civilian woman surrendering her pears to Renji, the exhaustion in every one of her slow, clumsy moves. Thinking of another woman, holding fiercely to her radishes. 

“You’re wrong.” She met Koji’s gaze, but didn’t share his commiserating look. “About my teammates.”

They were both sitting on Naruto’s bunk when she entered the room. 

Naruto asked if she wanted to play cards.

What she wanted to do was go home and sleep, sleep in her bed, with her pillows, that smelled like her house, and close her eyes and not see the dying civilians’s surprised frown behind her eyelids. 

“I think I’d like that,” Sakura said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week: Kakashi is a career counselor and Sakura is going to college. Next up: Sakura plays diplomat. It’s probably not an international disaster.

It wasn’t that Sakura had never killed a man before: she graduated same as everyone. It wasn’t that she was worried she’d be punished: she had known the rules of engagement by heart since she was a kid, and they were pretty damn clear about the unilateral right to absolute defense of village assets and personnel. But still, somehow, after she killed that civilian she felt as though something should have changed. 

Maybe it was because it was an accident. She really hadn’t meant to, hadn’t even thought – she had never faced an opponent that didn’t even try to dodge before. It was a humbling reminder of how far above civilians shinobi stood. She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, when she remembered. She thought maybe Naruto or Sasuke would at least bring it up, but neither of them mentioned it. And Sakura certainly wasn’t going to do so herself. 

When Kakashi had next appeared in their base (where he spent a grand total of three hours beating them black and blue in the courtyard, before disappearing to convene with Renji at the tower), he told her that he’d been briefed about the disturbance she’d handled. 

“Anything to add?” He’d asked.

She was half-squatting, half-collapsed on the ground, panting for breath. Naruto’s endless stamina meant he had already made it to his feet, and she could see him staggering towards his flask of water out of her peripherals. Sasuke was lying face-down in the grass on the other side of the courtyard. She supposed this was privacy.

“Not really,” she said. She wasn’t going to admit it was a mistake, so what else could she say? There’d been a disturbance, and she’d handled it.

“Not really?” Kakashi’s tone was completely expressionless, but she could sense him mocking her.

“No, sir.” 

“That’s better,” he said, and put a hand on her head, patting her lightly like a dog. The pressure pushed Sakura back off of her aching legs onto the ground in a graceless sprawl.

She huffed in frustration, and Kakashi’s eye curved up in a smile. Sakura thought she was getting better at reading him, or he was getting better at pretending, but it made her smile too.

He squatted down, looming over her. His gaze was hard, now, serious, and Sakura felt like she couldn’t breathe as he evaluated her. His eye wandered to her blade, and he wondered if he was seeing the blood on it the way she did.

She wondered if he was going to share something, some wisdom from the top. About what it meant to be a shinobi. About killing a civilian. About the third war. 

“The blood will get on you if you’re too close,” he said. 

Sakura preferred the way Suzume-sensei doled out lessons – lesson plan, objective, sub-targets and all – but she understood. 

She wanted to ask him something, maybe. Not, “did I do the wrong thing?” because she knew her rights, obviously, but maybe something like – 

“You’re improving,” Kakashi said. “Keep up the good work.”

It was enough to leave her giddy with victory the whole day. 

For the most part, nothing changed, and she realized it was silly to think something would have. Team 7 requisitioned grain (and vegetables), Koji managed to squirrel up some pears that Naruto would refuse to eat, they waited for Kakashi, trained individually and in team formations, requisitioned grain, played cards, chatted in the barracks, and requisitioned more grain. Sometimes Sakura wrote letters home, received a few from her father and a few dozen from her mother (in packs of ten at a time – the courier had laughed when he delivered them), and was mildly scandalized that Sasuke didn’t. Other times, she sat with Hana’s squad, and she managed to pester Koji into sparring with her a few times, before he got bored of kicking her around, but she found herself spending more and more time with the her own boys. 

It actually went okay. She was maybe a little mad at Naruto, for starting it all, with the civilians back then. He didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut, like, ever. But she thought that he probably felt a little guilty too, and their relationship had somehow improved as a consequence. She was a little angry and he was a little apologetic, and for a moment, sometimes, it made him seem vulnerable (at least when Sakura’s annoyance and anger helped her forget her fear). In those moments, he wasn’t really so bad. He actually seemed kind of sensitive, with the passionate grudge he was holding against Koji for exploiting the poor villagers, as though Koji was the one setting norms, as though the norms were unfair, and as though a bag of fruit would change things one way or another. It was a little naïve and definitely annoying when he would bring it up (in rants to the two of them was one thing, but when he started pressing a bemused Koji en route to target, Sakura wanted to die of embarrassment), but at the same time, it was the kind of thing that made you think that Naruto would probably do his best not to explode into a demon and murder you. Or at least would feel really bad if he did. Sakura tried not to think about it. 

Anyway, there was always Sasuke. Sakura would never, ever, ever get bored of sparring with him (though he never wanted to go one-on-one, he was almost always down for team drills), or cooking with him, or talking with (at) him. He didn’t need to say anything – which he didn’t, most of the time, he was too cool for that, though he and Naruto seemed to be more chatty with one another – just looking at him was nice.

Ino would be so jealous. Sakura missed her.

A week passed, and then another, and tension grew in the barracks as they awaited the scheduled Sand patrol that didn’t seem to come. Hana and Kakashi’s dogs were ever-present, patrolling in and out of the camp, but always with the same news: no site of them. By the time two months had gone by since their arrival at camp, Sakura had started to despair that Sand would ever arrive. 

She just hoped that they would be redeployed before the Rain invasion (that was technically classified and definitely not in the works, of course), because sitting it out at this dismal base would kill her, her parents would be so disappointed, and what was the point of elite of the elite if you were going to waste away in the middle of nowhere? She didn’t want to become another Miss Backwater Base.

Then one day at lunch hour, Hyuuga Hiroji jerked to his feet from where he had been sitting in the mess, veins surging forth around his blank, all-seeing eyes.

“Contact.”

The word sent the hall into a flurry of motion, food forgotten. Sakura whipped around from her seat besides Sasuke. Hiroji’s teammate Nobu had already disappeared from his spot besides the Hyuuga, presumably racing to the tower to inform Captain Renji. 

Hiroji continued to speak as the contents of the mess hall gathered around him to listen – Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Koji, and one of the two older chuunin men.

“300 degrees. No, 290 degrees, Captain Kakashi is already with them; Hana’s making a rendezvous. 2 miles. Less. Squad of three. No, four. Chakra levels are abnormally high, I can’t get a good look, one of them is too bright. 300 degrees. Speed is low, ETA at Point Beta, 10 minutes. 290 degrees, damnit, stop that, Captain. 300.”

Sakura jumped when Renji’s hand touched her shoulder. The dark-haired jounin had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, just to shoot her an irritated look.

“What are you all waiting for?” He growled, pushing her away from where she’d slithered up to stand besides Hiroji.

She turned to Sasuke, whose face was a grim mask. Naruto looked unusually serious as well, and when he made eye contact, she couldn’t help but rock backwards on her feet. 

Koji, on the other hand, was smiling, nose crinkled and eyes practically dancing.

“Nobu to the tower, Hiroji, on me, I want you to keep it up,” Renji began to spit out orders, “Touya, take the gate, but first round up the others, I want Noriko on the West approach, Koji – ”

“I’m with them,” Koji interrupted. “Captain Kakashi wants a babysitter.”

“Get to it then.” Renji accepted the statement without complaint, of course he did, Kakashi-sensei’s superiority of rank was never in question. He began to walk away, guiding Hiroji with him. 

“Well, brats, I guess we’ve got some friends to make, huh? Show some prissy desert bastards who’s boss, how’d you think?” Koji sounded gleeful.

“Do you have your packs nearby?” Sasuke asked, clearly addressing her and Naruto while ignoring Koji, as had become his habit.

“Believe it!” The rudeness never bothered Naruto.

Sakura was a little too touched he included her to point it out, but she shot Koji a semi-apologetic smile anyway. He just rolled his eyes.

“Yeah,” she answered Sasuke.

“Then let’s get up ‘n at it!” Koji interrupted whatever response Sasuke might have given. “Hiroji,” he raised his voice to call out to his teammate, who was making steady progress towards the doorway, consulting quietly with Renji. “ETA?” 

“Steady pace, 10 minutes,” the Hyuuga called back. 

“Good.” Suddenly all professionalism, Koji gave the three of them an appraising look. “Let’s go.”

Sakura had the ridiculous, burning desire to brush her hair. She tightened her ponytail.

.  
.  
.

They reached Point Beta with time to spare. It was marked by a copse of trees and a single iron watchtower on the ridge of an embankment overlooking the winding path of the Kamo river. The water didn’t look any different, but Sakura was heavily aware that she was outside the Land of Fire for the first time in her life, and had the strange feeling that if she stared at the water for long enough, its alien nature would reveal itself.

She had time for such an exercise, because after their desperate sprint to beat the Sand’s shinobi to the rendezvous point, Koji had said that they should give off a good impression, which meant radiating nonchalance as he sprawled across his chosen tree-trunk, which just happened to have a good view of the northwestern approach. 

Radiating coolness was something Sasuke did as easily as breathing, and he had easily taken up a similar position, while Naruto scrambled to the top of the watchtower. Sakura stayed at its base, leaning against one of its iron rails, also facing West, and settled in to wait, flowing just enough chakra into her feet to keep a sliver of distance between herself and the itchy weeds on the ground.

Kakashi’s dogs arrived first, trailing in one by one, until five of them were sprawled around the tower’s base. Kakashi had summoned one or two a few times to hunt them down in training, but she didn’t see Pakkun, and didn’t recognize any of the others by name.

A minute or so later, Kakashi himself blurred into view at the other side of the river. If Hana had indeed rendezvoused, she was already gone, but one of her large dogs loped along the side of the group Kakashi led. 

Slowly, at a civilians pace, they crossed the river, while Sakura watched silently, taking her cue from Koji once again. As they approached, four unfamiliar figures came into view, just as Hiroji had promised, the tall man in the lead wearing an exotic-looking turban that seemed to cover half his face. Sakura had the ridiculous thought that he and Kakashi would probably get along quite well – though she remembered the Hyuuga’s comment about abnormal chakra levels, and knew enough to be wary. 

One of the shorter figures had red hair, one of the few colors you never, ever saw in Fire, and Sakura couldn’t help but stare at it, wondering what bloodline he was from. 

Once near the bank of the river, Kakashi appeared at Sakura’s side in a replacement of swirling leaves. The Suna team followed, sending a small cloud of dusty dirt into the air with their displacements. The red-haired boy’s replacement was completely sand. They stood in a row facing the watchtower, facing Kakashi, facing Sakura, three shorter figures in front with the only adult, wearing a flak jacket, behind. Strangely, she noted, all three of them had bulky packs on their back, far more than a normal trip would require. At least the girl’s seemed like a weapon of some sort, though what exactly was unclear. 

“C’mon down, kiddies,” Kakashi called somewhat needlessly.

Sasuke had already stalked towards Sakura, accompanied by two of Kakashi’s larger dogs with something of an intimidating effect, and Naruto was scrambling down the tower. Koji substituted a few steps behind them, off by the watchtower’s side. 

“Well, Baki-sensei,” Kakashi gave the word a strange accent, “say hello to my cute little students. This is Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto.” He pointed them out in turn. “And their babysitter of course, you never know what trouble the little rascals will get up to if I’m not there to, hmmm, keep them in line, would you say?

“Well, maybe not quite,” Kakashi’s tone practically oozed sugar. “At least, rein in the damage in the aftermath.

“Cute little students, this is our Suna counterpart, Baki-sensei brought his genin team as well. Wouldn’t you like to introduce yourselves to my cute little students?”

There was a moment of awkward silence at Kakashi’s patronizing croon. 

“Temari,” Baki, the jounin in the back, pointed out the single female, a blonde with a frankly odious hairstyle.

“Kankuro.” The taller of the two boys was dressed all in black, with warrior’s paint proclaiming some sort of allegiance Sakura found unfamiliar. 

“Gaara.” As Sakura focused on the red-head from up close, his eyes met hers and she had the sudden, horrifying feeling of an mouse staring up at a lion, prey in its paws. For a second she could almost see chakra taking a visible form around him, and her fingers dug painful crescents into her clenched fists to keep herself from staggering backwards. She looked away.

_Dangerous…_

Something primordial inside of Sakura snapped, collapsed to its knees and burst into tears.

Kakashi’s hand was on her head. 

“Now that we’re all best buddies, we can follow the Kamo to the outpost, it’s a beautiful walk, ah, the sites you’ll see, yes, nature is a proud goddess!” 

Kakashi’s cheerful tone brought her back to reality as he simultaneously managed to pat both her and Sasuke’s heads, as though they were dogs. Thankfully, he respected her ponytail enough not to muss her hair, as he did to Sasuke, who gripped tightly to his hitae-ate in response with a disgruntled expression. 

The cuteness of the moment broke whatever spell Gaara’s presence had cast, but she instinctively felt herself inching closer towards Kakashi, just in case.

“As agreed, we will follow the river to the outpost,” Baki seemed content to pretend to ignore Kakashi’s incomprehensible behavior. “While inspecting to insure the lack of permanent Leaf forces stationed along it, of course. Tomorrow we can cross it, and work our way to the west.”

“Sure, sure, we get to cross the Shinano by Friday, though.” Kakashi responded. “Then it’ll be our turn to take a look at your outposts, hmm?” 

“Very well. That would be acceptable. We will push to the Shinano by the end of the week.” 

“Of course, you must have a busy schedule,” Kakashi’s voice was slightly mocking. “The Kazekage wouldn’t want all three of his babies far from home for too long, now would he? He might get lonely. We’re honored, of course.” 

_The Kazekage’s – ?_

Though half-covered, Baki’s face was far more expressive than Kakashi’s, and it was easy to see the anger that swept across it.

“That goes without saying,” he said. “We, on the other hand, purely speaking as professionals, nothing personal, you understand. But. Well. The situation must be desperate if this is the best that Konoha has to spare. Really? A demon you can’t control, and a handler you can’t trust, oh dear.” 

Sakura felt the insult slap her like a hammer. She very deliberately didn’t glance to see how her teammates had reacted, keeping her eyes on their leader.

Kakashi, however, seemed unphased. 

“Is that what they’re saying now?” he asked, giving a languid, full-body shrug. “You must be right, of course. We’ll trust to the hands of the, hmmm,” a meaningful pause, “professionals.”

.  
.  
.

Sakura wasn’t sure what she was expecting from diplomacy, but awkward tension seemed to make up the bulk of it. They began a civilian stroll towards the outpost, along the winding route of the river. The indirect path added a few more miles, but it was still something of a short walk, and the fort came into view after something like an hour.

Sakura fell into her usual position at Sasuke’s left, with Naruto on the right. Kakashi took point, leaving Sasuke lagging slightly behind her and Naruto. The Suna team fell into a similar formation nearer to the riverbank, though Gaara stood beside Baki at the front, perhaps even a bit ahead of him. The red-head’s eyes stared resolutely forward but his face was tense with some kind of heavy emotion, and Sakura quickly looked away. 

Koji trailed along on their left flank, the side further from the Suna team, among a veritable pack of dogs. He hadn’t said a word. 

As they made their way slowly towards the post, Sakura found herself wondering if Kakashi had experienced debilitating brain trauma in childhood. The nature here was the opposite of inspiring: a muddy, slow-moving river, lined with wild weeds, and completely bereft of signs of human life stretched into the distance. The Suna team, however, examined it closely, eyes darting from side to side, and body language obviously on high alert. Well, with the exception of Gaara, plodding unrelentingly forward, that is. 

Twice, Baki stopped, taking a sample of water from the river and sealing it away into a smaller version of what had to be some kind of storage scroll. Kakashi made no move to stop him, but also didn’t explain. The Suna shinobi didn’t speak, but occasionally flashed short sequences of unfamiliar hand signs.

The silence was oppressive, and Sakura could almost feel Naruto getting progressively more twitchy in her peripheral vision. He kept sending intense looks at the Suna team, particularly Baki and Gaara, without even trying for any level of subtlety, his right hand itching towards his stomach as he did so, as though nauseous. She wondered if Gaara had disturbed him as much as he had disturbed her. She really, really hoped not. If something could disturb Naruto, the consequences probably weren’t even worth contemplating.

As they approached the outpost, Hana’s dog trotted off ahead, as did four of Kakashi’s. His remaining dogs bunched closer around them, splitting off from Koji to take a stance alongside Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto, who immediately swept the dog into his arms, despite its somewhat uncomfortable size, and began to amuse himself by tickling it (thankfully, mostly silently). Pakkun was with Kakashi, of course. 

Baki watched the dogs trailing away sharply. 

The outpost seemed completely different by the time they arrived. From afar, a smokestack was visible, rising into the air from the mess, while on approach, the sounds of steel on steel hinted at some sort of swordfight coming from the courtyard or commons. The yowl of dogs was interspersed with some sort of ringing noise, whose origin Sakura couldn’t guess at. Unclear movement caught her eye along the walls, and two stationary figures were clearly visible standing upon the western wall that faced them. Squinting, she guessed one was Renji, but she couldn’t be certain. 

In all, it felt convincing. Probably. As long as Naruto didn’t say something dumb. 

As though reading her mind, he plopped the dog he had been holding onto the ground, and gave a grand gesture with a grin whose direction somehow included all of them, even the Sand shinobi. 

“Hey, sensei – ” Naruto was almost immediately interrupted. Thankfully, Sakura wasn’t the only one who’s thoughts had gone in a dangerous direction. 

“Tsh,” Sasuke scoffed. “Better not piss him off, his dogs are the only ones that can still stand you. Didn’t you notice how everyone else’s ran away when you started getting handsy.” 

“Now, now, we did talk about letting the grown-ups do the talking, didn’t we?” Kakashi said. His tone was as relaxed as his slouched body posture. 

“Yes, very cute,” Baki sounded irritated. 

“Yes, you are, my little cuties!” Kakashi swept Pakkun off of the ground and began to delicately balance him on Naruto’s head. The boy squawked in protest, but the dog stayed as still as a statue, eyes somehow emanating a feeling of long-sufferingness. 

“This is quite a force you have here, Copy Ninja.” Baki continued, eyes on the outpost. “Won’t you invite us inside?”

A long moment passed, and then another, until Kakashi gave an exclamation of pleasure, and stepped back from where Naruto was balancing on one foot, arms spread in concentration, with Pakkun delicately centered on the crown of his head, wide haunches slightly hanging over the boy’s ears. 

“Sorry, did you say something?” Kakashi’s voice was the picture of angelic innocence.

They continued on without entering the outpost, pushing south along the border, towards the sea. Kakashi brought them a few miles away from the border itself, upping the pace to a lazy jog. It was a tempo Sakura easily recognized and could match without problems, but no one seemed frustrated by the slowness. In fact, the Sand team called for breaks fairly frequently, during which Baki even took occasional notes, that he sealed into another storage scroll. 

After a few hours the countryside began to slowly pick up some semblance of life – trees! Sakura felt a fondness swell up in her heart – the Sand team began to stop more and more frequently. When the smokestacks of some kind of civilian settlement came into view on the horizon, Baki insisted that his team enter it alone, to “ensure the truthfulness of civilian testimony on your activities in the region.” 

What a smarmy jerk, Sakura decided. She couldn’t stand the condescending way he talked, or the hard accent he placed on his vowels. 

They settled on the riverbank around a half-mile from the settlement to wait. It was a different branch of the Shinano that Sakura couldn’t name, wider, and faster than the lazy Kamo. Naruto waited until the other team had disappeared on their way to the village-like structure of hovels to explode.

“What’re we gonna just not talk? The whole time! What’s the whole point, if we’re not even gonna try and make friends!”

Koji let out a scoff that reminded Sakura of his presence. Somewhere along the way, she had started to overlook him. Kakashi just gave Naruto his usual blank look.

“Kakashi-sensei! They didn’t come to fight those Stone bastards with us ‘cuz we weren’t good enough friends, right? Then we gotta make them understand! We can help each other, believe it!”

 _Well, those are the Kazekage’s children._ Sakura couldn’t help but think that Naruto might have a point. 

Koji scoffed again, but Sasuke also seemed like he was thinking on it.

“You two want to make _friends_ too?” Kakashi asked, eyeing them.

Sakura waited for Sasuke, who eventually, slowly, gave something of a nod, before she too enthusiastically agreed.

“Right,” Kakashi snorted. “Because Mr. Sunshine has made a single friend in his life. Okay. I don’t know if they’ll appreciate the distraction, but you kiddies can feel free to play friends too if you want. It’ll be more entertaining for me, at least.”

He paused, then added: “Just don’t bait them into any bloodshed, all right?” 

Sakura really hoped he didn’t consider that a normal part of making friends. Then again, it wasn’t as if Naruto or Sasuke were particularly experienced in the matter. 

Naruto looked ready to pounce on the opportunity.

Pounce he did, but Kakashi’s warnings turned out to be more salient than Sakura had expected. Maybe that was because Naruto decided to start with Gaara. 

Maybe it was because he did literally pounce.

The red-haired genin (who apparently had some sort of sand bloodline that moved faster than a hyperactive Naruto, good to know) successfully rebuffed Naruto’s attack, but Naruto was undeterred.

“Hey, hey, Gaara-san! You seem like you’re our age, yeah? What’s it like being a genin in Suna? Konoha’s the best, you better believe it!”

Gaara stared at him wordlessly, but the whole Sand team radiated enough shock to make up for the boy’s lack of expression.

At least Gaara seemed to quickly understand that Naruto hadn’t meant him any harm as Naruto continued to ramble, something about ramen, of course, and wasn’t being out of the village so completely the coolest? He watched Naruto silently for some time, but made no aggressive moves, and Sakura felt herself begin to relax. 

This was a horrible idea.

“Though, y’know, it’s kinda gloomy here, I like it better in the forest, but the river goes on forever, like just imagine if you were gonna swim all the way to the ocean, yeah?” 

Naruto was completely capable of holding a one-person conversation, but Gaara was in no mood to tolerate it.

“Shut up,” finally, Gaara spoke. “Or I’ll kill you.”

Then, he turned south, and began to move at their normal pace, as though expecting the others would wordlessly follow him. 

Temari’s face pinched into an unpleasant expression, and she shot off after him.

“What the hell?” Naruto spluttered, spinning around to look at Kakashi. Naruto didn’t look nearly as worried about a death threat from Gaara as Sakura thought he should.

Kakashi, unbelievably, seemed amused.

“I’m sure this is just a miscommunication among you, what was it? That’s right. Professionals,” he said.

Kakashi snicked at his own joke, and Baki glared.

“Anyway,” Kakashi drawled, “how about we call it a day and camp here for the night? We’ll take this side of the river. You can take the other. When your boy calms down, at least.”

.  
.  
.

“We’ll be meeting up with them after noon each day, until then they get some leniency in their ‘investigations’ ensuring we haven’t been crossing our treaty lines, so it’s polite to pretend to give them some space,” Kakashi explained over a hearty dinner of tinned meat over rice. He was using what Sakura thought of as his teacher voice, for once without any weird commentary: “For now I’ll use that time to show you three some tricks that will be useful when it’s our turn to do the same on their side.” 

Sakura was glad they made camp so early; she hadn’t actually had a chance to eat at lunch, before they’d been distracted. 

They set up on the eastern side of the river, closer to Konoha, while the Sand team set up some distance to the south on the western side. It was far enough that the flicker of a campfire was visible, but no sound carried over – all that could be heard was the sound of running water.

She shoveled protein into her mouth, staring mindlessly into the fire as Kakashi laid out their plan.

“We need to be looking for traces of shinobi presence,” Kakashi continued. Really, my dogs can do most of the job, but it never hurt to learn some tracking tricks. I’ll go over the basics with you all tomorrow.

“Today all of you were fine. Naruto, it’s fine if you want to keep trying to engage them, but don’t do anything too provocative. Maybe give the others a try, hmm? 

“Of course, you need to get the fuck out of here first.”

His tone suddenly turned hard. 

Sakura almost jumped in shock, looking up to see Kakashi staring at Koji, who was squatting across from the fire, hair a pale golden in the firelight. 

“Captain?” Koji asked. 

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Kakashi continued. “I don’t know why you thought I would tolerate this. Your presence here is unnecessary and embarrassing, and the idea that my soldiers would need your help is ridiculous. So pack up and get back to the outpost before I send you there myself.”

“I just, I mean, Captain Renji just thought – ”

“We both know Renji played no part in this,” Kakashi’s ignored Koji’s continued weak protests. “Don’t think I don’t remember you. I do. You had your chance, and you blew it. This is serious, and I’m not going to waste my time coddling you while you humiliate Konoha to the world.

“I don’t like to repeat myself: get the fuck out of here.”

They watched in silence as, hurriedly repacking his tent and fleeing into the rapidly darkening twilight, Koji left.

Sakura noticed her meat had gone cold. She picked at it uncertainly.

Meanwhile, Naruto found his voice, though it was weak and uncertain. 

“Kakashi-sensei, you embarrassed him in front of everybody? That is, I mean, why did you…?” He asked.

“We’re here to posture, Naruto,” Kakashi said, voice much more gentle. “It looks bad if I think you kiddies need some kind of support. Either I’m incompetent, or you are.” I’m not incompetent went unsaid. “The Kazekage’s children are here. You all need to match that.

“He thought he could use this as an opportunity to impress me, and make up for his previous failures. That’s not how it works in this world. Mistakes are fatal, and you can’t take them back. Sometimes that’s hard to accept, but it’s important not to put our own ambitions before the village. 

“Isn’t that right, Sasuke?”

Sakura turned to look at Sasuke in confusion, but the light of the fire cast strange shadows across his face, leaving it unreadable. 

Sakura thought about Koji. 

She thought about him when she mechanically cleaned her pot, and when she pilfered firewood from one of the civvie shacks in the nearby settlement. She thought about how easily he kicked her around the courtyard, how professionally he had lead their missions. She thought about him when she returned to the camp and was assigned third watch, and when she snuggled into her bed roll to get comfortable for the night. She thought about how he swore he had once been recruited for ANBU, and how he was wasting away at an outpost that would never see any action. 

She thought about how cutely his nose wrinkled when he laughed.

She looked up at the dark fabric of their tent, imagined the bright stars beyond it, and thought about Koji. 

She thought about her own mistakes, and the man that was dead because of them.

 _I’ll be better than that,_ she thought. _No matter what it takes._

_No. I’ll be the best._


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week: Team 7 explores River Country. Next up: the Sand border, Team 7 comes to some realizations

Sakura carried her new resolution with her in the tracking tasks Kakashi set them. This was her chance, Haruno Sakura, on her first (kind of) mission as an elite of the elite.

 _Believe it!_ She punched a fist into the air.

"Find something?" Sasuke asked.

He looked over at her from where he was squatted besides a sickly bush.

"No, not yet, I was just thinking!" She hastily withdrew her arm, blushing heavily, motivation fizzling away with her embarrassment.

He let out a grunt and turned back to examine his target, sniffing dubiously at the buds of what should have already been flowers. Sakura couldn't help but smile at his frustrated pout.

Naruto pranced over as though summoned, "Hey, you guys having any luck?"

He had been playing on the nearby stream under the guise of "looking around."

Sakura merely shook her head, but Sasuke's long-suffering sigh captured her feelings perfectly.

After giving Koji a tongue-lashing, Kakashi had returned to his normal, unbearable mix of laconic and mildly malicious. The instructions he left them with in the mornings, when he abandoned them to pass the time carefully stalking the Suna team at a level far beyond their current skills, were a proof of that.

It was their fourth day trying to find the "surprise" Pakkun had hidden for them "not too far away. Probably." They had gone so far south that they had almost reached the coast, though, to Sakura's disappointment, the Suna team explored the southern coastline on their own in the morning, and Sakura missed the chance to see the sea for herself because of Pakkun's stupid game. Now they were inching closer to the Shinano as they crisscrossed their way northwards again throughout River – it was already Thursday, and they were to cross on Friday.

Kakashi had been clear that if they weren't successful before then he wouldn't have time to waste babysitting them when they were closer to Sand. But if they did find whatever Pakkun had hidden, if they were successful, then he would let them help him in his evaluations.

Sakura _was_ going to be successful. No question – she had aced the academy's tracking unit. That kind of rote memorization came to her easily.

Unfortunately, Kakashi's only hint had been to "think like the puppies you are."

That didn't really give her a great sense of which part of the curriculum she should lean on.

Nevertheless, they managed to follow Pakkun's trail to a certain point, as always, after which it completely disappeared. No more paw prints, no more fur catching on tangles in the underbrush – absolutely nothing. By the time they had run an futile outward spiral search as a team and done three iterations of equally fruitless wheel searches, their time would have run out: noon meant they needed to stuff themselves with ration bars before meeting the Suna team to move on to a new site.

Sasuke had obviously become frustrated with their continued failures. This time, rather than following textbook search patterns to pick up a trail that they obviously weren't going to find, they were focusing on the place they'd lost it.

Pakkun's very last pawprint was before her feet, clearly set in the muddy ground besides the small stream he had followed. There was some sparse underbrush, which Sasuke had been closely examining for nearly an hour, but the horizon was flat, and visuals were good, except to the south, where uneven pillars of earth rose up in strange, jutting configurations that could only be the remains of massive earth jutsu.

The closer they got to the Shinano the more desolate the Land of Rivers became. Near the border, it had been something of a poorer, less populated and more watery version of the Fire settlements Sakura had spent the last months becoming familiar with.

The war had ended a decade ago, but it had left a harsh legacy on the small nation. Here, despite the proximity to the fertile river, civilian life was practically invisible. Houses were nothing but haphazard shacks built into the ground, dotting the horizon almost shyly, as though striving to go unnoticed. They hadn't seen something she could label an actual village in days. Even scavenging food and kindling from the locals had been becoming more difficult – at Naruto's whining they had ended up eating more of their rations instead of scavenging food from the only civvie home in their perimeter, though at least he didn't draw the line at taking wood for the fire.

More interesting was the ravaged landscape. Ghost towns of abandoned civilian settlements, long ago reconquered by nature, blended into the unusual earth patterns that marked the lasting effects of elemental manipulations. The many small water sources flowing off of the Shinano, Kamo, and other larger rivers were rerouted at strange angles for some logistical purposes that Sakura didn't bother trying to mentally recreate. The majority of the fighting had been nearer to the river, even at the war's worst, and then in Sand itself, but trenches were everywhere, running crisscross across even plains.

Columns of smoke rose from them still, where civilians had slowly began to populate the abandoned fortifications, and when Sakura looked at them, she felt that she could almost imagine herself there, on the battlefield of the Third War. It gave the landscape a sense of romance that leant greatly to her daydreams.

Now wasn't exactly the time for flights of fancy, but, still, she couldn't help but wonder.

"Hey, Naruto," she said, rocking back onto her heels to get comfortable. "You've been outside of Fire before, right? Is everywhere else like this?"

By _this_ she meant a total shithole, but her mom wouldn't want her to put it like that.

Her hyper-awareness of Sasuke's every moment let her catch the nasty look he shot her, but it wasn't like they were getting anywhere with their search.

"Well, I dunno," Naruto was hesitant. "There's lots of nice towns in Fire, I've been to some of them. With buildings like in Konoha, y'know, not like here, and castles and stuff. For the nobles. And lots of people. Nothing as big as Konoha though. Outside of Fire we never really visited the towns. I mean, villages are kinda the same everywhere, right? Just some are bigger or have more food."

He looked thoughtfully at the earth pillars on the horizon.

"This place is really sad, though. We should've done something, so it didn't turn out this way, y'know?"

"Yeah, if we'd been able to annex at least up to the river, things would've been way better off," Sakura agreed easily.

It grated that a permanent presence wasn't allowed, even though River Country was their official client. If war broke out here all the fortifications would have to be completely rebuilt, and the civilians occupying them summarily relocated. Their current status wasn't really good for any sort of defense, as she was sure that the shinobi from Sand had taken note.

That said, the poverty of the lives of the locals was really oppressing. She understood why it was depressing Naruto.

"The people should've just moved to Fire," she said, thinking logically. "But I guess here they don't have to pay shinobi taxes. They probably don't get that in the end they'd have more if they moved."

"I guess…" Naruto said. "I don't really get all that stuff."

"It's a fallacy based on the initial costs. The immediate costs of moving and then the prospect of additional taxation scare them too much to think about the long-term benefits of protection and stability. There was never long-term fighting within Fire's borders in any of the wars, not even once. Plus, protection on a lower level, of course, missions and the like." Sakura explained.

"Aha, I totally get it, now! You're really smart, Sakura-chan!" Suddenly, Naruto had become all sunshine and smiles. His mood whiplash was sometimes as dramatic as Kakashi's. "Thanks for explaining to me."

"You think it's that much better for the ones on our side of the border?" Sasuke scoffed, tossing his head as he stood up to join their conversation.

Sakura shrugged. She really liked Sasuke, but she was noticing more and more the type of things that people whispered about other Uchiha, the ones that weren't related to Itachi-sama. She wished he wouldn't act like that.

"What would a dog do?" She asked, changing the subject without any particular grace. "The whole 'dog-pack searching style' totally isn't working."

"Yeah, it's definitely not just another fakeout to hammer in the 'teamwork' lesson, we've covered that," Sasuke said. "We have to get it today."

"They pee on trees a lot," Naruto suggested, not for the first time. "We could sniff all the trees until we find pee. There aren't that many trees around here."

"Maybe it's about puppies, specifically, not dogs," Not for the first time, Sasuke ignored Naruto's suggestion. It really was a specialty of his. Sakura remembered why she liked him so much now.

"It's got to be smell," she said. "I mean, puppies don't even open their eyes or ears for weeks. Their hearing isn't great, either. And I'm definitely not licking any trees until I taste pee."

"I didn't say that!" Naruto squawked. "Hey, hey, I said smell, too! I totally did, from the beginning!"

"It still doesn't make sense, though!" Sasuke snarled. "We eliminated that for a reason. He can't really expect us to teach ourselves how to enhance our senses enough to find a scent trail."

"Well, Inuzuka do it, right?" She wasn't sure; that kind of clan business wasn't really broadcast. "Or do their dogs do it for them…?"

Sasuke didn't answer, which meant he obviously wasn't sure either.

Sakura had never had a dog. Or pet of any kind. That was a pretty frivolous thing only nobles did. Unless you were on a farm or something.

"Dogs dig, sometimes. I mean, I've seen some dogs do that," Naruto suggested. "I don't know about puppies. But maybe it's a scroll or something, underground? With some secret techniques on it? Kakashi-sensei told me he was gonna show me some wind techniques soon! I bet that's it! I'm gonna get it first, believe it!"

He threw himself at the ground in front of Sakura, clawing with bare hands at the ground under Pakkun's last paw print. She took a revulsed step back, leaving him space for increasingly frantic movements. A spray of mud shot out behind him to splatter Sasuke, but before it could connect Sasuke had substituted away, landing on the stream out of range of the danger.

"Seriously, Naruto…!" With difficulty, Sakura repressed the urge to sock him in the face. Only the thought of the imminent demise that would surely follow could restrain her. Instead, she had to content herself with a few seconds of spluttering.

"Ugh, you really need a full-time babysitter," She said, wrinkling her nose.

Naruto also was capable of selective deafness, it seemed, because he ignored her with gusto. He ripped up roots with wild abandon, slowly widening the hole opening up beneath him.

"Sakura," Sasuke said, appearing beside her. His eyes were riveted on Naruto. "Puppies stick near their mothers."

.

.

.

Finding Kakashi was easier said than done.

First they had to return to the campsite, which went much faster when not tracing after Pakkun's winding trail, but still took a fair amount of time. Then they had to start out again with a whole new set of parameters: they knew the general location of the Suna camp from the night before, and logically there were only a limited number of sectors the shinobi would be interesting in examining today – Sasuke already had them all marked on their map from the previous night's strategy session.

But, above all, they needed to make contact with Kakashi at a time near enough to noon to be acceptable if the Suna team noticed them. Preferably, they would avoid detection at all, of course, but with a wary jounin on the lookout, that was probably impossible. If Kakashi was actively evading the jounin's senses, the situation was even worse – how could they fish him out if Baki couldn't?

Ultimately, they decided to haunt the location they were supposed to meet the Suna team at noon, taking into account the direction they were most likely to be coming from (three possible sectors, zone search with security emphasis) and sweeping to rendezvous with Kakashi before the time limit. He probably wouldn't count it if they just waited a little early at the rendezvous point itself. Punctuality didn't mean much to him.

Sasuke was confident that Kakashi would reveal himself when they proved they'd figured out his "retarded mind games."

Naruto agreed that it was "typical for that one-eyed bastard!", so that was that. En route they were, Formation 2.

Naruto had thrown himself into the new plan with even more enthusiasm than he had dedicated to his beloved three-foot hole in the ground.

He was probably just looking forward to the chance to harass Gaara. Naruto's increasingly horrifying attempts to befriend the clearly unstable boy were actually proving somewhat beneficially to Sakura as well, so she didn't want to complain too much. Gaara's team seemed to have calmed him enough that he hadn't threatened murder since that first day, and Sakura felt as though she and Sasuke were bonding in their attempts to prevent Naruto's worst thoughts from leaving his lips (Sasuke was excellent at elbow-jabs, and not afraid of Naruto in the least, but Sakura's finely-tuned stare-at-boys-discretely skills made her better at noticing when he was about to burst out with something particularly awful). When she realized they had reached a stage of shared conspiratorial eye-rolling, it made her blush to the very toes.

It was basically the secret love language that Ino had always bragged that only Yamanaka could really understand.

Still, Naruto's behavior confused her. Though she and Sasuke had both given up on Naruto's "diplomacy" kick after the second day, she could understand why he was looking so hard to foreigners for friendship. But, Gaara…

"Why do you care so much, anyway?" She asked.

Both Sasuke and Naruto turned with questioning hand signs flashing for her to repeat.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun," She clarified. "I meant, Naruto, why are you trying so hard to win that psycho over? I know Kakashi-sensei said it was okay. But. Temari seems normal. I guess snobby, and pretty quiet. Kankuro is really vulgar. But, still, if you want to make friends with someone that doesn't know what you are, sorry, I mean – they're probably easier to reach out to. They can't throw that sand at you, at least, they're missing the gourds, so that's definitely only his bloodline."

Naruto didn't answer immediately. She wondered if she'd offended him with her straightforwardness.

She couldn't help but fiddling with her forehead protector as she focused back on the route ahead of them.

"I want him to know I understand," Naruto said finally, unusually softly. "That guy… he's just like me. And I understand."

.

.

.

Sasuke was mostly right. One of Kakashi's dogs stopped them to wait for Kakashi, warning them that if they went any further the Suna team might notice them. But Sasuke was still partly wrong: after an appropriately long wait for his arrival, Kakashi revealed that the secret task hadn't been to _find_ him, but to _rely_ on him.

"The bitch hunts for the young," he said. Then, wailing dramatically, and throwing his hands into the air: "But you didn't even ask for instructions! How could I tell you where Pakkun's secret scroll was if you wouldn't even _ask_ how to find it?"

Sakura thought this was the exact opposite of everything he had taught them up to then.

As always, Naruto was the only one to voice that level of rudeness, aggressively pointing at Kakashi.

"Sensei, you bastard! We wasted three whole days! We were gonna sniff the trees for dog piss!"

"That was never going to happen, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura corrected immediately, stretching out her hands in a gesture of denial.

She heard the satisfying whump of Sasuke elbowing Naruto in the gut. She hoped it hurt.

"But, still, I guess I can count it…" Kakashi mumbled, as though talking to himself, but obviously loud enough for them all to hear. "Alright, kiddies, you've won a prize. Next week, I'll show you how I would've tracked Pakkun. Though, I just summoned him to me after an hour, so it's not as though you guys had a chance."

Sakura's fists clenched involuntarily as she stifled her rage.

"Still," Kakashi continued. "I hope you brushed up your tracking skills. You'll need them starting tomorrow. Congratulations, you've earned the right to follow me around.

"Now let's go play with our frustrated guests."

It was a good way to describe their interactions.

They moved west with the Suna team, accompanied as before by four of Kakashi's dogs. As always, the Suna shinobi were visibly alert to their surroundings, and Baki continued his semi-periodic calls for stops to take notes.

Naruto made increasingly awkward attempts to engage Gaara in conversation. He started, as usual, with invasive questions about the day's work that Gaara would have been obliged not to answer even if he wanted to be Naruto's friend. The one-sided interrogation easily segued into a monologue about the kindness, open-mindedness, and selflessness of Naruto's favorite civilian, an old man who was the owner of some ramen shop. When that started to lead him down the road to reminiscing about the Academy – Sakura could tell because of the mention of Iruka-sensei, and shot Sasuke a meaningful look – Sasuke put a quick end to Naruto's chatter with a vicious step on the foot.

"Holy shit, blessed silence," Kankuro moaned, but Naruto was undaunted.

"Anyway, Gaara. I was thinking, that it's people like Old Man Teuchi that really matter, y'know? I mean, just one person can make up for everyone else, can't they? You just have to find your person, so that you can find the strength to keep moving forward, you know what I mean? And then you're not lonely anymore. And you don't have to be lonely ever again – because there's one person who will never forget you.

"You probably have someone like that too. I guess, the Kazekage is your dad, right? I always wished I had – "

"Are you threatening me?" Gaara interrupted. His voice was wild, and he came to a sudden stop, bringing their whole group to a halt.

"What? No, I – "

"My father has been trying to kill me for years." Gaara continued.

They stood in tension. Sakura had the sudden realization that if a fight broke out right now it would mean a war. Naruto seemed to realize that too, and he made an abortive motion with his hands, before settling down at the way Gaara's gaze tracked his motions.

"No, I didn't mean that, then, just, I meant, a person who is precious to you is what can make it okay. " Naruto tried.

"There was one person like that, the way you said," Gaara reached a hand up to cling at the blood red kanji for _love_ tattooed on his face. He stared at Naruto through his fingers with a deranged smile.

"He failed to kill me as well. None of them will succeed."

A strand of sand twisted out from his gourd and into the air. The tension was so thick a knife could cut it.

"Let's go find a village, Gaara," Temari suggested in a murmur, barely audible. "You remember the mission. These people don't matter – let's go find a village."

He turned and stalked away from the group, headed in a different direction than they had been moving. Temari followed. Kakashi made no move to stop them.

The silence continued until the two of them disappeared from sight. One of Kakashi's dogs split from Naruto's side to follow them.

"You have no objections, of course," Kakashi said, nodding at Baki.

Baki agreed.

Kankuro let out a low whistle. "Damn, you Konoha are crazy."

"I apologize for the inconvenience," Baki said stiffly.

"Nah, it's alright," Kakashi's tone was firm, and his hands dug into Naruto's shoulders. He gave the boy something of a shake. "It won't happen again."

.

.

.

"So, what happened today, kiddies?" Kakashi asked when they were all crouched around their campfire. They had quickly found a suitable spot to make camp near the banks of the Shinano after Gaara and Temari had rejoined their group.

"Kakashi-sensei, things went way too far today, right?" Sakura said.

Naruto sunk down in his place.

"But you two were for the idea in the first place, weren't you?" Kakashi asked. Sakura thought of that first night around the campfire, with Koji.

She didn't know what to say.

"That's not the point, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said. "It's just because I can only talk to him. If I could just _show_ him, I know I could make him understand! I just need the chance to show him!"

"And what do your teammates think of that?" Kakashi poked at the fire with a stick, sending sparks flying into the air. His full attention was on the flames, his tone completely uninterested.

"Tch," Sasuke grunted. "You need to cut it out, Naruto."

"Yeah, Sasuke-kun's right," Sakura agreed. "If he's like you… Naruto, you should stop, maybe. I mean, if you get him angry."

"You guys don't get it!" Naruto let out an actual growl, and Sakura couldn't help but shudder. "You just don't get it! He's just like me! He's always been alone! It's even worse, because he doesn't have Old Man Teuchi, or Iruka-sensei, or – I dunno. Everyone always looks at him like that, with those eyes, like he's a monster. Everyone's afraid he's just going to explode and kill them all without even knowing, but he's not, _he's not._ It's not like that! And they look at him like that, but then they probably make him use it. He would never use it if they didn't make him! He's not a monster, they're the ones that make him act like one. But I can show him, I can make him see – it doesn't have to be like that, right? Someone can see through it, can see _him_ , Gaara, not – not anything else. I'm gonna do it, so you better believe it!"

He paused to pant for breath after his passionate declaration, hand raised to the sky in challenge.

 _Oh,_ Sakura thought. _Oh, oh, oh. Oh, Naruto, I –_

"Naruto." Kakashi said. "Don't talk to him anymore."

He stood, looking down at them one by one, his gaze hard.

"Get some rest tonight. We have a big day ahead of us and we'll have a lot of work on the other side of the river. We meet with Baki's team at sunrise."

The next morning they forded the Shinano.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team 7 bonding, Suna shenanigans, Sakura learns something! Next up – the war in earnest. Thanks to everyone following, stuff will start picking up speed from here on :)

Her dad had warned her once, in a moment of weakness, shortly after her exalting first letter informing him that she had been sent to the border.

"Be careful, Sakura," he had written. "Remember that there are real monsters out there. It's not a shame to know your place."

Sakura had dismissed the letter with a kind of embarrassed irritation. Her father had risen well in the ranks for a first-generation, but Sakura already knew her place was higher. She didn't need his condescension. She had thought, foolishly, that her time with Naruto meant she knew what it was like to walk among monsters. That she could stand beside them – and someday, against them.

Naruto was just an irritating boy.

She knew that now.

But Gaara…

Gaara always reeked of blood.

It hung heavy on the air, clogged her nose, suffocated her. She gasped for air and then immediately regretted it, as it only left her choking further. The scent of blood was so heavy she imagined it took on a kind of form as it centered around him, like the sand he commanded. She could almost see it now: clawing paws, a thick tail, heavy fangs of blood-red death, snarling, it's tail whipping back and forth as it glared over Gaara's shoulder at –

It turned to look at her.

She stopped channeling chakra in an instant, then choked again at the sudden loss of sensation as her heightened sense of smell disappeared.

Gaara's eyes were on her, but the beast was gone. The stench was gone.

She hurriedly looked away. Her gaze focused on Guruko's steady movements besides her. She leaned down slightly to run a hand over his floppy ears, playing with the soft spikes of fur above his Konoha hitae-ate. The dog nuzzled comfortingly at her palm in return, and Sakura didn't try to suppress her smile. Kakashi's dogs had become their usual companions; they even shared bedrolls. It was almost as if Guruko was hers. She ran a finger along the line of his long, dark whiskers, taking comfort in his unflappability. He could probably smell that _all the time._ It was an awful thought.

Sasuke had shifted slightly closer at her momentary distress, so she flashed him the all-clear.

His response was a request for elaboration, and the concern that indicated made Sakura feel somewhat warm in the inside as her imagination flashed ahead of her thoughts. She signed "smell" and "bad," and then after a moment's thought, added a jerk for emphasis: "very bad."

Sasuke relaxed slightly and pulled back ahead.

She wondered if Gaara was still looking at her, but was too cautious to check. Instead she risked a glance at Temari, who was closer in the Suna formation to her position anyway. The girl was staring at her. When their eyes met, Temari let out a loud, deliberate chuckle.

Sakura focused back on Guruko.

Something was wrong.

Something was desperately, horribly wrong. And even Kakashi didn't know what.

.

.

.

At first, things had been fine. Better than fine, even. With the lazy blue of the Shinano river behind them, while they had begun to pick their way across the part of River Country nearer to Sand, Kakashi had shown them a secret.

"I believe the Inuzuka have something similar," Kakashi explained. "It's a way of enhancing your smell, but also of broadening it to include the scents of chakra itself. You'll see."

This wasn't the type of thing people taught. Sakura knew that well. Kakashi stood there and explained his clan technique to her, Haruno Sakura, forehead-girl. This was the type of secret that clans had guarded for generations, passing down only to their own. The kind of secret that turned into a bloodline across the centuries, the kind that marked the border between a Genin Corps soldier with the potential to gain chuunin specialization training and a full chuunin, a full jounin, the backbone of the village. This was what it meant to have a jounin instructor: she could cross that border.

She couldn't help remembering how once, when they were little, one of the girls in her class, she couldn't remember who anymore, (probably Amane, she was like that), had asked Iruka-sensei to show them an elemental technique.

Iruka had laughed: "You kids think I have something like that? If I did, I certainly wouldn't teach you. Someday, when you're genin, you can apply for permission for a chuunin training program where they'll work on a specialty with you." He had paused then, and glanced at the other side of the classroom. It was where the clan kids sat, grouped together, as they always did. Back then even Sasuke sat with them. "Or you could ask your jounin instructor."

Sakura had never forgotten that glance.

But Kakashi was standing before her, Kakashi was taking her hands into his own. Sakura let him guide her fingers like loose putty.

He formed two Horse signs with their clasped hands, pushing his chakra into her system the way her father had, long ago, to teach her burgeoning chakra system to move according to hand signs. Her dad's chakra had been warm and familiar, a light tickling sensation under her skin. Kakashi's was different – cold, tingly, an electrifying feeling that made her want to itch at her skin. She held still as it pushed through her veins, coursing up to her head from the connection of their fingers, numbing her mouth and then her nose. For a few terrifying seconds she couldn't breathe, her face was frozen, her face was on fire – she braced herself, holding back the reflexive urge to call upon her own chakra to purge the intruder from her system – her face was on fire, and then he was gone.

He was gone, but she could still taste him.

Suddenly she had a new awareness of her nose, her mouth – she could feel them, could feel the chakra running through them, the same way it coursed through her hands and feet. More than that – she could control its flow.

"Not yet," Kakashi warned, as though guessing the direction of her thoughts. He clasped Sasuke's hands in his own.

Naruto was last, but a moment after taking his hands, Kakashi jerked back.

Kakashi peeled a sizzling glove off of his lightly smoking skin.

"Say, Naruto," he said. "How'd you learn to manipulate your chakra system anyway?"

"Uh," Naruto seemed unsure. "I dunno, we did all that focusing stuff in class. With the handsigns and stuff."

"That's very impressive," Kakashi said casually, as though unimpressed at the fact that _apparently Naruto had single-handedly reverse-engineered a thousand years of chakra flow development without ever being shown it!_

Sakura gaped. She shared a glance with Sasuke, who seemed equally nonplussed.

"Thanks?" Naruto asked, scratching at the back of his head in pleased embarrassment as he accepted the complement. "I mean, huh? What?"

"It doesn't matter," Kakashi said, giving Naruto's hair a ruffle. "As it is, your special chakra means I can't manipulate your system. You're going to have to sit this one out."

"What?" Naruto whined. "C'mon, Kakashi-sensei, you gotta be kidding!"

"Don't worry about it, I'll show you a second jutsu tonight, and you can spend the rest of the week working on it when you're not helping out your teammates. You're not missing much, subtlety isn't really your thing anyway, right?"

Naruto wavered.

"I've got the perfect jutsu, just for you," Kakashi wheedled. "I stole it from the Suna team just last week – you'll be the only one in all of Konoha that knows it."

Naruto was sold.

Sakura wouldn't have been jealous, even if she hadn't been absorbed with the fact that her own face felt unfamiliar for the first time in thirteen years. She had something better.

For a while it had been even more glorious than she had expected. Sasuke's nasal chakra paths were particularly weak, which Kakashi said was to be expected of an Uchiha – his eye paths were overdeveloped, which meant a comparative weakening of nearby pathways. That meant he couldn't hold the technique for long at all – and from his descriptions, the impressions he got were a lot less clear than what Sakura was already capable of.

"On the other hand, that's why your eyes will work better for you than this one works for me," Kakashi had flicked at his headband, covering the eye that Sakura still hadn't seen.

Once Sasuke had the sharingan he would have total recall anyway, so it's not as though he really needed this technique, Sakura figured. She'd heard they could even see the future, in the short-term at least, or something like that. That would definitely be better than smelling chakra imprints.

Sasuke obviously thought the same, because he had gotten bored (and wasn't that clan privilege?) of the technique fairly quickly after ensuring he could recognize the smells of each of the team members, and left the bulk of the actual tracking work Kakashi assigned them to Sakura. He had quit after finding his first target on their second day. Instead, he and Naruto (who also seemed not to be particularly practicing at whatever Kakashi had assigned him) spent the time Sakura was at work engaged in an assortment of increasingly aggressive competitions that had the two of them lunging at each other and growling like the dogs ever-present at their heels.

When Sakura found a target they were all business, of course – but it was always Sakura who found it.

This technique was hers. It was amazing (even if she couldn't hold if for more than a couple of hours without tiring out).

An even, steady balance of chakra flow to her nose and the back of her mouth ("Eventually it'll be as instinctual as the layer under your feet," Kakashi said) and the world changed. She could taste the way Kakashi's chakra lingered, musky and so obviously _grown-up_ that there was no doubt which signature belonged to him, she could feel Naruto's at the same time, a sweet smell that was somehow unpleasant, grating in its density, and then Sasuke's scent, already familiar from childhood stalking, but with a hundred new shades of nuance that had escaped her before.

There were normal smells too: dog, grass, mud, rain, whiffs of smoke – Kakashi had told her to memorize everything she could, which she quickly set to work on – but chakra left behind something stronger. Something _more._ Naruto simply existed _more_ than anyone else; his presence echoed behind him in his absence, a reminder that someone had once given this grass, right here, meaning, had breathed out into this air, gracing it with the weight of his own breath, so heavy. It was intoxicating.

It was also incredibly distracting.

While Kakashi searched for signs of unauthorized shinobi presence in the region, the three of them had a simpler job. All Sakura really had to do was sniff out human settlements and point out any particularly heavy signatures she found there. There wasn't a really great frame of reference provided for "particularly heavy," which was par the course for Kakashi, so she erred on the side of caution, but aimed for anything particularly that seemed to her at least twice as alive as the average civilian.

Kakashi seemed pleased enough by her calculations, or at least accepted them without comment. Whatever was to be done with the civilian children with overgrown chakra networks was in his hands. She knew that in Fire Country they would be transferred to Konoha – that was how her father had been conscripted. She doubted these children would be as lucky.

Sasuke had been clear, anyway, at Sakura's moment of hesitation when they uncovered their first target: "It's not like we have a choice."

That was that.

She realized she was being silly when Naruto, who even emphasized with the uppity civilians around the outpost, didn't seem particularly unhappy with their task except in the vague way he was disappointed with any task that didn't involve direct combat. Then again, Naruto also didn't really pay any attention to anything.

Still, the mornings of that first week on the Suna side of Land of Rivers had passed like a dream. Literally. She'd spent months in the academy entertaining herself with the fantasy of Sasuke following her lead as she hunted down a target.

The afternoons could've been better, of course. As they traveled across western River Country with the Suna team as their ever-present guides, Naruto spent the entire time radiating disappointment and sadness to the extent that even the ever-professional Guruko abandoned her at times to join Shiba in trying to cheer Naruto up with playful nipping. Gaara steadily ignored both Naruto's obvious depression and unsubtle longing looks in his direction. Despite Naruto's habit of taking disregard as a provocation, he did as Kakashi said and stayed silent.

Sakura had found it stressful and excruciatingly awkward, but now she would've done anything to go back to that atmosphere.

It had begun when they reached the border with the Land of Wind. They started at the southern edge, not far from the gulf (where Sakura once again was deprived of her chance to see the ocean). From there, they were to work their way north, towards the border with Rain Country, beyond which lay Iwa. It was that region of the border that interested them most, obviously, as the Suna team knew well. Sakura didn't really understand why they were all playing coy about that, but she was pretty sure they'd started on the southernmost edge mostly because Sand were all assholes.

There had been an outpost there, on the Land of Wind's southern border, not dissimilar from the one where Sakura had been stationed on the Fire border. They weren't invited inside, though Kankuro flashed inside for around twenty minutes while they waited at a respectful distance with the rest of the Suna team. The Sand outpost looked fairly lively, but a few chakra-fueled breaths in and out allowed Sakura to pick out individual scents, which Kakashi had specified wouldn't be possible without a particular focus in any real mass of enemies. It was a useful trick that easily rendered the attempts of the local forces to puff up their numbers futile.

Kankuro had returned without a word, and they ran another dozen miles before settling down to camp at an appropriate distance from the outpost.

The next morning, everything had changed.

.

.

.

Their pace had slowed. Previously Baki had driven them fairly hard, around the same pace Kakashi had chosen, leaving Kakashi to demand halts when necessary for informational gathering. It was a standard practice, as far as she knew.

Now they were in the opposite, uncomfortable position of moving at a pace a civilian could probably match. It was obviously some sort of ploy, but at the same time, if Kakashi asked for them to pick it up, it would be a hard sign of weakness: what shinobi would want to miss out on the informational-gathering opportunities represented by such a slow stroll along the border? It was infuriating.

It was frightening.

Worse, the Suna shinobi weren't making an effort to hide the strangeness of their behavior. Sakura felt as though she and her team were being mocked. Baki and Kankuro had begun talking, not infrequently, to one another, as though it were totally natural, as though almost the entirety of the trip hadn't been spent in silence up until that point. As though their topics of conversation (as trivial as a civilian puppeteering troupe that had performed at last Founder's Day Festival, or as provocative as facts about the Kamo River's flora and fauna that were almost certainly classified) could be considered normal. Gaara was unmoved and uninterested, of course, but even Temari occasionally joined in. She laughed. So did Baki.

Sakura had sniffed at their chakra, trying to sense if they were working some sort of jutsu, or looking for the presence of other enemies, she wasn't sure. It told her nothing except that her father was right about monsters.

She wasn't the only one getting paranoid about the change in the Suna team's moods. Kakashi had warned them the night before to be ready for the possibility of attack or ambush at any time. They were all on edge.

She didn't know how much longer the rising tension could last before something snapped. It was a race to the northern border at excruciatingly slow speeds. It had been eight days since they had arrived at the Wind border in the south. By now even Sakura could make it to the northern edge of the border in two hours' sprint if she really tried (and that was something new to be proud of, she knew). But at their current pace it would probably be another two days.

They set camp that night in tense silence.

As they ate, huddled around the campfire, Naruto finally broke the oppressive atmosphere.

"Maybe if we try to talk…" Naruto said.

"No, Naruto," Kakashi said placidly.

"Like, even if they get mad, that's better than being all sneaky and plotting and stuff, isn't it? I mean, if you think about it, Gaara's probably the only one that's acting normal now, y'know, so he could probably help us out." Naruto began to ramble.

"No, Naruto!"

Kakashi stood, looming over them.

"Understood?"

"Yeah. Okay," Naruto sunk into himself.

Kakashi disappeared into the darkness, and they were left once more in silence. With an enhanced breath, she could feel him somewhere nearby, probably keeping watch.

Naruto's shoulders shook silently. He stared out into the darkness, eyes dry, but open unnaturally wide, whites blazing. Sakura glanced at Sasuke, but he was very intently looking away.

Later, she would be ashamed of the long moment she hesitated in reaching out.

"Naruto," she said finally, and put a hand on his shoulder.

He gave a full-body shudder at the contact. He turned to look at her, face open and innocent in its complete devastation.

With no more hesitation, Sakura pulled him into a hug. It was uncomfortable from their sitting positions, and Naruto's elbow pushed somewhat painfully into her chest as he shifted awkwardly, but she ignored it.

"Naruto, I'm sorry," she said. "I'm really sorry. I know you want to help Gaara, so I'm sorry. It's unfair. I mean, you're right – it's unfair. Not just that, I mean, everything. It's all unfair. I mean, It's unfair that you, that everyone… What I mean is that I'm sorry. I know you're not a monster."

Naruto was completely still, but she didn't let go of him and she found that she couldn't stop talking. She talked over his shoulder, head resting against the puffy collar of his orange jacket.

"I'm really sorry. I'm sorry that I looked at you, I mean, looked at you like _that_. I'm sorry that you can't show everyone. I'm sorry that you had to do – that they make you – I'm sorry! People shouldn't get to judge you for that. You help us all, every day! And anyone who judges you for – for _that_ is just stupid, and a bully! So! You'll definitely show them!"

Suddenly the words that had flown so freely dried up. Naruto was still laying limp against her like a dead weight. He hadn't even made a move to hug her back. Sakura swallowed down her embarrassment and pushed him away, hoping she wasn't blushing visibly.

"Sorry," she mumbled again, staring concertedly at the ground between their feet.

"Sakura-chan…"

She chanced a glance. He was staring at her wide-eyed, but when their eyes made contact, a smile grew on his lips and he awkwardly reached out to scratch at the back of his head. Even in the dim firelight, Sakura could easily see the blush painting its way across his cheeks.

"I…" he trailed off. "Yeah, I'll definitely show them. Believe it, Sakura-chan!"

She did.

"Sakura's right that it's unfair," Sasuke said suddenly.

Sakura was shocked to realize that she'd forgotten about him. She hoped he didn't take that the wrong way.

"Konoha is always ready to judge," Sasuke continued, spitting bitterly as he spoke. "They'll act like you're the monster while they benefit from _your_ blood. They have no right. It's disgusting."

Sakura couldn't control her uncharitable inner response. What was disgusting was for Sasuke to act like his situation could compare to Naruto's. Some judgement was unfair. And some was _deserved._ Like of his stupid, treacherous family that got away with it all scot free.

 _He's just lucky that he's Itachi-sama's brother,_ she thought, feeling as bitter as Sasuke sounded. _But then –_

Sasuke was reaching out, too, she realized. Sasuke would never talk about those kind of things, about judgement, family, at the Academy. Sasuke wasn't just reaching out, he was trying to empathize.

 _Kakashi was right,_ she thought. _Sasuke's bad at making friends._

But she'd been included as well, so she could teach him.

More importantly, Sakura realized, she had already made her choice. They were assigned, but she chose them anyway.

"Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash," Kakashi had said.

Naruto was spluttering something as he continued to melt in embarrassment. The sight made her giggle.

She chose them, so she smiled at Sasuke when he caught her eye. He snorted too, which was basically a laugh.

.

.

.

There was something of a new understanding that carried them through the next two days of unending stress.

Kakashi had returned shortly before they went to sleep to ruffle Naruto's hair in a socially-awkward version of an apology. She chose him too.

Guruko was by her side, as always, tawny head perked for any side of danger. She had already fallen in love with the somewhat silly-looking dog, she didn't need to make any choices there.

They were all a team. They weren't alone.

Two tense days later they scouted the northernmost edge of the Wind/River border. There was no evidence that Suna was planning an attack, or that it had a long-term troop presence in violation of the Shinano Peace Accords signed at the end of the Third War. Or at least, Sakura couldn't detect any. If Kakashi had made other conclusions, he kept them to himself.

But Kakashi probably hadn't either, because from the moment Baki's team bid them a mockingly friendly farewell after escorting them the first 20 miles from the border (with a warning that they'd be away if Team 7 tried to stick around), he led them towards Fire at punishing speeds. They forded the Shinano near dark, resting on the other side only shortly for a water break.

"We all know something wasn't right, there," Kakashi said. "They'll probably be ANBU sent to infiltrate. Whatever happened there was bigger than the four of us. None of you did anything wrong."

It was a poor attempt at reassurance. Especially when he followed it up with the directive to inform him before they collapsed, and set them off at a sprint once more.

They ran well into the night before Sakura felt the ground begin to slip away beneath her, as the chakra spluttered out from the soles of her feet.

"Sensei…!" She managed to gasp, and he caught her even as she fell, hefting her onto his back.

Her rubbery legs wound around his waist without any real strength, but she was still able to cling tightly around his neck as he leapt forward again, all smooth, focused motion. From the direction her head was pointed where it lay flat against the back of Kakashi's vest, she could see Sasuke, red with exertion, breaths labored, but still pushing onwards. She had gone farther, and faster than she ever could have dreamed of mere months ago. But she still couldn't help but hate herself a little.

And then she hated something else, with a burning type of rage she hadn't even known herself capable of. Because when they reached the outpost on the Fire border, everything became clear in an instant.

The invasion of the Land of Rain had failed.

It was a massacre.


End file.
